The chef Traci Des Jardins, a friend of Ms. Bloomfield, said that early in her own career, she had partnered with a powerful man to create an acclaimed restaurant.
“Imagine how difficult it would be to be in partnership in your late 20s when you are so naïve and really don’t know anything about business but you have a burning desire to make great food,” Ms. Des Jardins said. “If you walk away, you would have had to walk away from all the success and a business you put your heart and soul into.”
She cautioned people not to brand Ms. Bloomfield as a collaborator because of her reputation as a tough boss. For women in restaurant kitchens in the 1990s, when both of them began cooking, it was the only way to survive, she said.
“Being a disciplinarian and being tough in the kitchen does not make you a tormentor.”
However the public ultimately views Ms. Bloomfield, her reputation is scarred in ways that will inevitably affect her future. In June, she announced that she will retain control of the Breslin and the John Dory Oyster Bar in New York’s Ace Hotel, Tosca Cafe in San Francisco and the Hearth & Hound in Los Angeles. (Her new partner is a restaurant management company that provides structures like a human resources department and formal hiring and firing procedures.) Mr. Friedman will keep the Spotted Pig. The fate of White Gold Butchers, which has been closed since August, is unclear. Last week, GFI Hospitality, the developer of New York’s Ace Hotel, sued Mr. Friedman for $5 million in damages, financial “misfeasance” and back rent connected to the Breslin and the John Dory Oyster Bar.
Meanwhile, Ms. Bloomfield has begun psychotherapy, is receiving executive coaching, and has repeatedly gathered her current restaurant staff in order to listen, reassure and apologize. (Through a representative, Mr. Friedman said that he also has spent time this past year in therapy, and that he has been “listening, thinking and learning from this experience.”)
Ms. Bloomfield has reached out to several chefs for advice too. Tom Colicchio said he told her, “You have to do the hard work, and that doesn’t mean put your head down and make good food. This is different work.”
But a big hurdle remains: contacting Mr. Friedman’s victims, who have become bitter as her silence stretched out for months.
