A former manager is suing Savannah cooking entrepreneur Paula Deen. The celebrity chef is pictured at the dedication of a public high school culinary arts program named after her in Savannah. (photo by Orlando Montoya)
The ex-employee also alleges racial discrimination at Deen's restaurants, a major tourist draw in the coastal city.
A person reached at Deen's public relations firm didn't have immediate comment on the lawsuit, filed Monday in state court in Savannah.
A former manager at Deen's "Uncle Bubba's" restaurant alleges Deen's brother, Bubba Hiers, subjected employees to a wide range of violent, humiliating and sexually explicit behavior.
Attorney Wesley Woolf says, his client, Lisa Jackson, complained to Deen and her executives repeatedly without remedy.
"Black employees, for instance, were not allowed to come to the front of the restaurant from their positions in the kitchen," Woolf says. "They were required to use only one restroom that was not the customer restroom."
Deen's television celebrity has spawned a cottage industry in tourism-dependent Savannah.
It's also spawned several previous lawsuits and rounds of bad press, none of which have had much affect on tourism or her most admiring fans.
