Sexual harassment chef named

Published on Thursday 30 March 2006 02:32

A CHEF to the stars who subjected a waitress to a campaign of sexual harassment for which she was awarded £124,000 in compensation was named yesterday.

Alberico Penati, 49, bombarded Iklarea Signoriello, 26, with phone calls, insults and sexual innuendo in a four-month campaign.

At one stage Mr Penati, who is executive chef at Harry's Bar in Mayfair, London, cornered his terrified victim as she wept outside the restaurant.

When she tried to reject his advances, he said she "looked erotic" when she cried, and continued to molest her.

Mr Penati has cooked for the Prince of Wales, Madonna and Elton John. Members of Harry's Bar include Hugh Grant, Jemima Khan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Viscount Linley.

Miss Signoriello, who was forced to quit her job suffering from depression and post- traumatic shock, was also regularly subjected to sexual taunts in Italian slang.

The waitress claimed Mr Penati would walk around his kitchen wearing only his underpants and made sexual references to his female customers.

When she rejected him he made a "thinly-veiled" threat that she might break her leg, a tribunal heard.

Miss Signoriello, an Italian who has returned to her home country, won her case for sexual discrimination and constructive dismissal at a London employment tribunal last month.

But a legal technicality kept the identities of the chef and his victim and the name of the restaurant secret until reporting restrictions were lifted yesterday.

In finding for Miss Signoriello the tribunal ruled that Mr Penati had an "unpleasant and bullying" attitude and generally regarded women as "sex objects".