The kitchen at the French Laundry in Yountville in 2017. A former employee has sued the restaurant over alleged labor violations.
Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle
A former French Laundry employee has sued the three-Michelin-starred restaurant over lost wages and several other alleged California labor code violations.
The lawsuit, first reported by the Press Democrat, was filed on March 19 in Napa County Superior Court by Elena Flows Beteta. She worked as a dishwasher at the French Laundry for roughly two and a half years, between 2022 and 2025, according to the filing.
Beteta is suing the French Laundry and Thomas Keller Restaurant Group on behalf of herself and “over fifty current and former aggrieved employees,” the lawsuit states, for alleged labor violations including failures to pay wages and unpaid vacation time, and to provide meal and rest breaks. An attorney for Beteta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Beteta’s lawsuit was filed through the California Private Attorney Generals Act (PAGA), which allows employees to sue, on behalf of themselves and others, employers for labor violations and potentially recoup civil penalties. These claims have resulted in large payouts for restaurant workers, including a $2.2 million settlement for more than 300 employees of a chain of Bay Area Indian restaurants in 2022.
Thomas Keller pictured in the kitchen in 2017.
Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle
The Thomas Keller Restaurant Group told the Chronicle that it “only became aware of this lawsuit through the media,” and that Beteta “makes a baseless claim that she represents other employees as well.”
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“She does not,” the statement continued. “Beyond this one employee, no other employee at the French Laundry has raised any issues about underpayment. The fact is that the French Laundry complies fully with all California employment laws. We look forward to proving that this lawsuit from a single employee has no basis whatsoever.”
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The restaurant group — which includes the French Laundry and Bouchon Bistro in Napa Valley, Per Se in New York City and Bouchon Bistro in Vegas — has faced other legal action in recent years. In 2024, former employee Regina Muth filed a class action lawsuit against Bouchon and the restaurant group, also alleging labor violations. That case is in arbitration.
Beteta’s suit claims that three to four times a week, she and other employees were required to continue working after clocking out for the day to complete “post-shift tasks” for which they were unpaid, such as cleaning walls and mopping floors. Workers also lost wages while waiting in line to use the time clock at the beginning of their shifts and when leaving for and returning from lunch breaks, according to the lawsuit. These waits would typically take “at least five minutes,” and often resulted in “shorter meal breaks.”
The lawsuit also alleges that employees “frequently missed meal periods,” and when they were provided, they were “often later, short and/or interrupted.” Roughly once a week, Beteta claims she was called back from meal breaks early by her supervisor to perform work-related tasks, such as disposing of trash.
Rest periods were also “frequently missed” and “not scheduled into daily shifts,” the lawsuit states, and the restaurant allegedly did not pay the one-hour penalty as required by California law for missed rest periods. Moreover, employees were allegedly denied “suitable resting facilities,” often forced to lean up against a wall or rest in their car.
The Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, which includes the French Laundry and Bouchon Bistro in Napa Valley and Per Se in New York City, has faced several legal actions in recent years.
Stephen Lam/Special to The Chronicle
The filing accuses the French Laundry of exposing employees to “a high risk of suffering heat risk,” because they were required to “consistently work” in temperatures “far exceeding” 80 degrees without cool-down opportunities.
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Employee bathrooms were neither “within reasonable access” nor kept clean, the lawsuit alleges. They were instead located a 10-minute walk from the restaurant at a nearby storage unit and “consistently filthy,” according to the filing.
The Thomas Keller Restaurant Group has faced other lawsuits over the past decade. In 2016, the company and Keller were sued for pregnancy discrimination by a former Per Se employee who claimed she was denied a transfer to the French Laundry due to being pregnant. The company was cleared of wrongdoing at trial, but then ordered back to court by a judge over insufficient evidence and alleged misconduct by the jury and defense council. A settlement notice was filed in 2019, followed by a motion to dismiss in 2020, according to court records.
In 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group over sexual harassment claims, alleging that since at least 2018, managers at Bouchon Las Vegas sexually harassed female and male employees on a daily basis. Bouchon and the restaurant group “failed to take appropriate and effective action to prevent the ongoing sexual harassment,” EEOC alleged. The restaurant group denied the claims and the case is ongoing.
Other cases include a person who sued the French Laundry last year for negligence after she tripped and fell while exiting an outdoor bathroom designated for employees (the restaurant denied the claims in court) and a California Department of Industrial Relations wage theft claim filed in 2025 against the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, according to state records. The claim is under investigation.
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A hearing for Beteta’s lawsuit is scheduled for August.
This article has been updated with a statement from the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group.
Dining and Cooking