After Firing, Ryan Skeen Calls Allen & Delancey Evil, Shady

For those who thought the Ryan Skeen/Allen & Delancey fracas was well over, think again. A quick recap:

· After cycling through chefs Akhtar Nawab, Kyle Bailey, and Neil Ferguson, A&D picks Ryan Skeen to steer their troubled ship.
· Allen & Delancey files for Chapter 11.
· Chefs walk out due to bounced checks.
· Reports surface that credit card tips are being withheld.
· Ryan Skeen pretty much asks to be fired over Twitter.
· Ryan Skeen is fired over email
· Owner Richard Friedberg claims Skeen went over budget, didn't spend enough time in the kitchen, and brought in chefs without permission.

Looks like there could be more at work here than a lazy, overspending chef. To defend his honor, Ryan Skeen makes some calls over to Grub Street and The Feed and declares his former bosses are big fat liars.

In addition to claiming he worked at least 80 hours a week in the kitchen (though he refused to work with one manager, claiming she was inexperienced), Skeen reports that he only on occasion broke the $8,000 per week kitchen cost budget, $1,800 of which, apparently went to his salary. He tells both blogs he was uncomfortable with the frequency with which checks would bounce. He eventually demanded that purveyors and staff be paid in cash and then refused to release the fall menu, figuring it would be used after his departure.

In addition to calling the owners liars and "shady", he says, "That restaurant was evil, one of the worst things I’ve seen in my life to be honest." Regarding the Twitter debacle, both Skeen and Friedberg admit this break has been long in the works.
· Ryan Skeen: Allen & Delancey Owner Is ‘Straight Lying’ [GS]
· Ryan Skeen on what went wrong at Allen & Delancey [The Feed]