On Thursday, Kis Cafe confirmed the identity of the chef, posting on
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A recently opened San Francisco wine bar has fired its chef and announced it will close amid fallout from an ill-fated collaboration with a TikTok influencer. On Thursday evening, Kis Cafe took to Instagram to confirm to internet sleuths that it was indeed the restaurant at the center of the controversy and that chef Luke Sung, was no longer with the restaurant.
Kis Cafe, which opened in SF’s Hayes Valley in May, was bombarded with one-star reviews following the incident which saw a Bay Area food influencer leave the restaurant in tears. The influencer, TikTok user @itskarlabb, took to social media this week to recount her run-in with the restaurant’s chef, now confirmed as Sung.
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In her video, which was racked up millions of views and over a million likes since it was posted Wednesday, the influencer said she had made an agreement to feature Kis Cafe’s food on her account. But when she arrived, she said she was berated by Sung for her number of followers.
“I just left a restaurant collaboration crying,” the influencer said in the video.
“He is not having it, saying to the host that he shouldn’t have invited me and that this was a mistake and that this was bad,” she continued. “… I am turning red because I am so embarrassed and I feel really disrespected.”
“It seemed like he was insinuating that my followers would not be able to afford to eat at this restaurant,” she adds at one point. “Then he said, ‘Not to be snobby, but do you know who I am?’ And I say no, because I don’t know who he is.”
At no point in the video does the influencer call out the name of the restaurant, or of Sung, who is a James Beard-nominated chef the San Francisco Standard described as “one of San Francisco’s top chefs from the early 2000s.”
Lux owners, Luke Sung, left, Kitty Sung, center, and sous chef, Tony Radna, right. (Photo taken on 07/28/04, in San Francisco, CA. Photo By Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The San Francisco Chronicle (Photo By Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
On Thursday, Kis Cafe confirmed the identity of the chef, posting on Instagram and calling Sung’s behavior “unacceptable.” The post went on to say that “he is no longer part of the team as a co-owner, a chef or in any other way.”
“As of this post he (Luke) has reached out to the creator with a personal apology,” the post continued. “This behavior does not reflect the remainder of our team. We want to create a space that’s welcoming and respectful to everyone. In this instance, we failed to do so.”
The post went on to say that Kis Cafe was “closing soon and restructuring after these events.”
“In the meantime, we hope to still be able to sustain the livelihoods of our team members and their families,” the post concluded.
At the time of this post, the influencer’s original post has racked up over 14 million views. In a follow-up post, she announced that she had gained “so many new followers” as a result of the incident.
Source:: News San Francisco – KRON 4
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