Editorial Regarding Noosh and Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz Lawsuit

Regarding Noosh / @NooshSF, the restaurant at 2001 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA  94115, the owner, John Litz, and the former chefs, Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz, who were recently fired and against whom a lawsuit has been filed:

I have worked in the high end culinary scene since I was 18 years old and I have worked with everyone involved in this sad scene.  I can tell you that owner and CEO John Litz / @JohnLitz1 is one of the smartest restauranteurs and finest humans I have ever met.  So when this lawsuit (link and excerpt below) says that Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz / @LauraAndSayat took money from the restaurant and put it in their own bank account, and I heard it was a lot of money too, I know it is true.  Not to mention many other horrible charges in this suit which I am also confident are true.   And given that, there would be no choice but to fire the Ozyilmaz’s, self inflicted.  I am sure it was the last thing Noosh wanted, I remember them searching for a while to find an executive chef to execute Mr. Litz’s concept before they found and hired the Ozyilmaz’s, and they invested heavily in PR for the Ozyilmaz’s after bringing them in.  Noosh was never the Ozyilmaz’s strategy or even name (despite Sayat’s made up story) and a bunch of people in the very small and tight food scene know it.  We are afraid to speak up, because the Ozyilmaz’s have lied and weaponized their Instagram following and no one wants their restaurant caught in those cross hairs, but we all know what really happened.

Laura and Sayat, you know you have done wrong and you have to know the truth will come out in the end.  You know you will never #takebacknoosh and you know it was never yours to begin with so all these lies and theatrics are just sour grapes hurting the culinary industry.  Please, for yourselves as well as everyone that works in food, move on with dignity from here.  You are making it difficult for the members of your own former team to just get back to work and earn their living, and you are making it more difficult for all of us in the food scene to get investment for our new concepts.  I am so disappointed that you exercised such poor judgement after so many years of hard work to develop your considerable culinary skills, but you can’t undo that.  Rather move forward as gracefully as you can so you can start the process of building a good reputation again.

To Noosh and Mr Litz, I just want to say that we are talking to each other out here, we know the truth of what’s going on, and we are here for you.  I have talked to several folks that said they have already called you and let you know the same.  But I just want you to know that what is going on here is pretty transparent within culinary world.  Hang in there and the public will get this information to know the truth as well.

This page excerpted from the court filing which you can find by clicking here and typing Ozyilmaz in the people search box.