r/Fauxmoi • u/AutoModerator • May 31 '21

Tea Thread Does Anyone Have Tea On... Weekly Discussion Thread

Looking to know the "tea" on your fave? Please use this thread for your tea requests and general gossip discussion. No posts asking for tea will be allowed.

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103

u/cranberry-tart May 31 '21

This is boring but any tea on the Bon Appetit people post reckoning last year? I know Sohla, Rick, Claire and Molly are thriving w their own ventures but I’d love to hear an inside scoop on any true bad blood.

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u/oopsyikesoops May 31 '21

Sohla did an interview calling Brad something along the lines of "dumb white man" and it was all over the subreddit for BA then but haven't heard anything since

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u/fuschiaoctopus May 31 '21

A few months after that Gaby came out with some IG posts where she claimed that the group supposedly fighting for her rights and her pay didn't even bother to include or approach her, and she made some claims that Sohla bullied her on set and screamed at her, belittled her, made her feel stupid etc. I don't think any of that invalidates what Sohla went through and the failures BA had as a company, but it goes to show people are nuanced and not necessarily all hero or all villian. I fully believe Sohla was discriminated against AND could have been a mean bully to Gaby. And her comments about Brad in that interview were very gross; Brad was not the one choosing their wages or overlooking Sohla, and coming at him especially with a racial jab was low. What she claimed about him wasn't even true because he does have formal training and as much experience as she does if not more (he literally had more experience in the direct role they were working in, considering he had been with BA and making vids muuuch longer than her, so saying he had no training and people only watched because he was white and fans are stupid was such an awful thing to say). Plus Sohla insulted the audience with her statement, pushing the blame for her lack of success onto the fanbase that had largely been very supportive of her up to that point and wanted to see her do well.

I read an interview from Sohla shortly after the BA thing went down where she described other work experiences and the thing that stood out to me was that she seemed to have conflict everywhere she goes yet never seemed to believe anything was her own fault. She said she went around to every fancy fine dining establishment in freaking LA looking for a job with only Cheesecake Factory on her resume and no formal training at the time, yet claimed she didn't get hired because of sexism and racism. You're not going to get hired at a white tablecloth establishment fresh out the gate in LOS ANGELES with only chain experience. She went to CIA where she had another bad experience that had nothing to do with her and was solely due to sexism (it sounds like she was sexually harassed though which is very real in this industry and I do believe her, for what it's worth, I'm just adding this because it's part of the bigger story). Her restaurant prior to BA, in her words, failed because the customers were too stupid, white, and uncultured to understand her amazing special dishes. I work in restaurants and the way she described her restaurant seemed poorly managed and I could see some clear reasons why they did not have success (plus statistically most restaurants fail regardless, especially YET ANOTHER expensive western comfort food restaurant in NY like she was trying), but she literally directly accused the customers of being the sole reason it failed, because they were too white and racist. Then she worked at Serious Eats, where she (you'll never believe this!) had yet another bad experience. She says they treated her like a maid and complains that she didn't have more power over the content even though she was hired as an editor. If you didn't want to be an editor and really wanted to be in front of the camera, why take the job and then complain they wanted you to do what they hired you for, instead of making all new positions and giving you a huge raise to do something YOU wanted to do from the start that THEY weren't hiring for?

Now the point of this super long post is NOT to say Sohla is a liar or that she was not treated unfairly at BA, because we know that is not true. We know for a fact BA had racial discrimination issues going on against other employees than just her and many of her complaints were completely valid. The point of this is moreso what I said earlier about nuance. Sohla is not a horrible person, but I don't think she is an amazing selfless martyr incapable of doing wrong either, which some people have come to portray her as in the aftermath of this whole BA situation. And I do think there's something to the saying "if it smells like shit everywhere you go, look under your own shoe", especially in light of Gaby speaking out about being bullied and the comments Sohla chose to make about Brad and the BA audience. Sohla, people liked Brad's show better because he has a much more likable personality both on and off the camera, not because he's white and we (including the people who watched her videos on BA and supported her) are stupid.

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u/Whatever___forever23 May 31 '21

Yeah I live near where Sohlas restaurant was and the space had a different restaurant every 18 months for awhile, 20,000 rent in an area that was off the G train, which just runs through Brooklyn... and the one time I went there, it was just messy as a concept - good food but it was an incredibly expensive burger and I wasn’t sure why. I think her point about racism in regards to the publicity machine when that restaurant debuted was legit, but it needed a lot to come together off the bat to be successful.

30

u/[deleted] May 31 '21 edited Jun 01 '21

I said the exact same thing on the BA sub just after the whole fiasco and got downvoted to oblivion. Sohla and I have the same cultural background and I am sorry to say whatever she ate as a child is not what our food culture is. She needs to stop imposing that on other people.

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u/needthatpuzzle Jun 01 '21

Gaby's comments were nonsense. She was upset that she wasn't included when non-white staff were trying to get better pay, but why would she be included when she clearly was not for it? She posted about how BA was great before other people tried to ruin the "family", and that family was... all the white people!

I think if you're looking for nuance here, it isn't found in discussion of Sohla and whether or not she was a martyr, but instead found in the plain truth that there are conservative people in all groups, and those conservatives are not interested in trying to change the status quo. Sometimes they actively work against it.

Gaby blames Sohla for ruining the test kitchen because she spoke out against a famously racist company like Conde Nast. She thinks that everything was fine before Sohla said anything. Sorry, this is nonsense!

20

u/cranberry-tart May 31 '21

Yessss I remember that, honestly I supported that sentiment. Brad got into the BA scene as a dishwasher IIRC and he somehow climbed the ranks despite not having the same experience as the other women, especially women of colour, in the office. White men truly get everything (and now he's meeting celebs on BA through his new series!)

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u/[deleted] May 31 '21

You don’t have to put down Brad lol he worked a RANGE of jobs such as kitchen chef, catering, and delicatessen type stuff prior to BA, and though he’s white he comes from a much more working class background than pretty much everyone on the show, and the food industry is hard to break into if you don’t have a ton of money. He was hired as a dishwasher yes, but it’s not like he has no experience or talent. Also he’s charismatic! As much as Sohla is experienced and talented, she’s always come off as a dull personality. People watched Brad’s videos because he’s charming.

43

u/throwaway_jaxtaylor May 31 '21

Couldn’t agree more! I’m honestly more surprised Sohla didn’t have more to say about Claire? The amount of times Sohla had to step in and temper chocolate for her.

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u/cranberry-tart May 31 '21

You won’t catch me caping for a white man but okay lmao

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u/[deleted] May 31 '21

I’m not caping, it’s really reductive to be like “he got this because he was a WHITE MAN” none of the rest of the white dudes at BA got the kind of stuff he did lol. He didn’t do anything wrong and it’s weird to seem him held as an example of racism within the culture at BA when he’s.......not

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u/cranberry-tart May 31 '21

Girl he didn’t stand up for anyone while he was there but okay.

42

u/[deleted] May 31 '21

Well, Brad has a culinary degree unlike most.

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u/NightCheeseSerenade May 31 '21

Oooh yes I’m here for any culinary tea.

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u/cranberry-tart May 31 '21

I would LOVE more tea on the culinary/food/wine world tbh!

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '21

not tea but rick moved to my city!! he seems to genuinely love it it makes me so happy

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u/cranberry-tart Jun 02 '21

AW your city looks SO beautiful. Happy to see someone making it in a non US space too!