Ex-‘Top Chef’ contestant Gregory Gourdet on drug, alcohol abuse in NYC restaurant scene
NY Post
A former “Top Chef” contestant is dishing about the prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse in Manhattan restaurant culture, and how routine “shots of liquor” and “lines of cocaine” nearly derailed his life and career.
Gregory Gourdet, who opened up a Haitian restaurant, Kann Winter Village, in Portland, Oregon, during the pandemic, discussed how New York’s intoxicating culinary culture led him into addiction on Elizabeth Vargas‘ “Heart of the Matter” podcast series. Gourdet, who is in his mid-40s, said his battles with substance abuse began while starting his career in “The City That Never Sleeps” around the turn of the century.
It was a flashback to NYC in the 1990s.
The killing of Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday in an unprecedented joint military attack by the US and Israel called Operation Epic Fury set off widespread celebrations from Iranians around the world — as President Trump said it would give them their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.” Meanwhile, in Iran, a lack of internet has made it impossible for Iranians to easily communicate daily conditions. Over a period of three days, with limited VPN connection, an eyewitness currently in Tehran — who, for her safety, is concealing her identity — shared her account of life under a country in the midst of battle with The Post’s Natasha Pearlman.
After exactly 120 years, the curtain has fallen on the Theater District institution Barbetta, with the iconic Italian restaurant having served its final course Friday night.