Bay Area celebrity chef’s widow alleges investors withheld evidence and forged signatures to take over restaurant
By Esther Mobley, Senior Wine Critic
San Francisco Chronicle, Dec 18, 2025
The fraught legal battle over a late celebrity chef’s Bay Area restaurant empire intensified this week, as the chef’s family attempted to regain control of his flagship Napa Valley restaurant from investors who acquired it last spring.
The estate of Michael Chiarello, the chef and Food Network star who died in 2023, filed a motion to vacate arbitration on Wednesday night in San Francisco Superior Court. The estate, controlled by Chiarello’s widow, Eileen Gordon, claims that following Chiarello’s death, investors sought to take over his Yountville restaurant Bottega using illicit methods including signature forgery and document tampering. The investors named in the filing include Rich Frank, a former Disney executive and founder of Napa Valley’s well-known Frank Family Vineyards.
This week’s filing brings to light new allegations that the investors withheld key evidence from the arbitrator who allowed them to buy Bottega. It comes in addition to a civil lawsuit that the estate filed against investors earlier this year, which remains in early stages in Napa County Superior Court.
“My goals have always been to protect Michael’s legacy,” Gordon told the Chronicle in an email. “Michael was very careful about his (intellectual property), knew how to protect it.”
In a statement emailed to the Chronicle, Frank and one of the other investors, John Hansen, called the motion “yet another feeble attempt by the estranged wife Eileen Gordon to re-litigate issues that were exhaustively examined and conclusively resolved by a judge after a lengthily (sic) arbitration.” They added, “We are confident the arbitration award will be upheld.”
Before his death at 61 of anaphylactic shock following an allergic reaction, Chiarello was a major player in Napa Valley’s wine and food industries. He helped catapult the region’s restaurants to international fame after arriving in the 1980s and opening the influential Tra Vigne in St. Helena. Bottega, opened in 2008, became a fixture of the Chronicle’s Top 100 Restaurants list under critic Michael Bauer. Chiarello also owned Coqueta, a Spanish restaurant on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, and Ottimo, a casual pizzeria in Yountville.
Chiarello expanded his reach with a Food Network show, “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello”; a cookware brand, NapaStyle; and a winery, Chiarello Family Vineyards. (He sold NapaStyle several years ago, and the winery is no longer producing new wines, though its remaining bottles are sold at Coqueta.)
Chiarello faced allegations of sexual harassment in lawsuits brought by employees in 2009 and 2016. Chiarello denied the accusations and settled both cases out of court for undisclosed sums.
In the days after his death in October 2023, the investors — Frank, Hansen and Peter Crowley — “began a sustained war on the Estate to seize the assets that Chef Chiarello had built over the decades,” according to the civil lawsuit that the estate filed against investors in July. The filing asserts that the investors tried to wrest control of the restaurants and intellectual property from Gordon, as well as Chiarello’s four children. Gordon and Chiarello separated in 2019 but remained business partners until his death.
At the time, Chiarello owned 70% of Bottega LLC, the entity that controlled the restaurant, Hansen had 8.19% and Frank held a 0.94% interest, Gordon told the Chronicle.
The lawsuit alleges that the investors, with help from the restaurant group’s chief operating officer, David O’Malley, shredded documents; seized Chiarello’s life insurance policy documents, passport and birth certificate; forged Chiarello’s signature on corporate documents; falsified the dates of other signatures; and blocked Gordon and the estate from accessing key files including bank statements and the chef’s personal email.
Frank, Hansen and Crowley made an offer to buy all of Chiarello’s restaurants and assets, including his intellectual property, in February 2024, but Gordon thought the offer was “insulting,” she said, and rejected it.
Rich Frank, former owner of Frank Family Vineyards, with his wife, Leslie Frank, in 2023 in Calistoga. Frank announced that he and partner John Hansen had acquired Bottega restaurant in May 2025.
The lawsuit claims that Hansen and Frank’s actions were aimed at “forcing a sale at a very low price in order to enrich themselves.”
At one point, the lawsuit states, the investors considered selling a liquor license owned by one of Chiarello’s companies, but Frank told Crowley not to do so because it would have benefited Gordon financially. “I do not want to do anything that gives (Gordon) cash or help,” the lawsuit quotes Frank as saying. “The more she gets squeezed the better it is for us.” (The estate obtained this and other correspondence after Gordon fired O’Malley and reviewed his emails.)
The lawsuit also alleges that Frank, who sold Frank Family Vineyards to Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates in 2021 for $315 million, held secret staff meetings at his home and instructed Bottega staff to serve fewer wines from Chiarello Family Vineyards in favor of Frank Family Vineyards wines.
In May 2024, the investors filed a lawsuit claiming that they were entitled to purchase Chiarello’s assets. The case went to arbitration, and in April 2025 an arbitrator found in the investors’ favor. In May 2025, Frank and Hansen announced themselves as the new owners of Bottega. The purchase price was around $1.2 million, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
In this week’s motion, Gordon’s lawyers argue that the arbitrator made that decision based on false information provided by Frank and Hansen.
Chiarello’s business empire was divided into several segments. Each restaurant operated as its own LLC, while a separate legal entity, Gruppo Chiarello Inc., was responsible for the restaurants’ management. Another company, Solo Io Inc., held all of Chiarello’s intellectual property, including the restaurants’ trademarked names, recipes, logos, branding and future licensing opportunities.
The estate argues that the arbitrator wrongfully allowed Hansen and Frank to control Bottega’s intellectual property when they purchased Bottega LLC; the intellectual property was owned by Solo Io Inc., not the restaurant itself. In theory, the ownership of the intellectual property could allow Hansen and Frank to open satellite Bottega restaurants in other cities and use Chiarello’s likeness to promote them.
At stake, the estate contends, is at least “tens of millions of dollars” in economic damages caused to the estate by the investors.
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Bay Area celebrity chef’s widow alleges investors withheld evidence and forged signatures to take over restaurant
By Esther Mobley, Senior Wine Critic
San Francisco Chronicle, Dec 18, 2025
The fraught legal battle over a late celebrity chef’s Bay Area restaurant empire intensified this week, as the chef’s family attempted to regain control of his flagship Napa Valley restaurant from investors who acquired it last spring.
The estate of Michael Chiarello, the chef and Food Network star who died in 2023, filed a motion to vacate arbitration on Wednesday night in San Francisco Superior Court. The estate, controlled by Chiarello’s widow, Eileen Gordon, claims that following Chiarello’s death, investors sought to take over his Yountville restaurant Bottega using illicit methods including signature forgery and document tampering. The investors named in the filing include Rich Frank, a former Disney executive and founder of Napa Valley’s well-known Frank Family Vineyards.
This week’s filing brings to light new allegations that the investors withheld key evidence from the arbitrator who allowed them to buy Bottega. It comes in addition to a civil lawsuit that the estate filed against investors earlier this year, which remains in early stages in Napa County Superior Court.
“My goals have always been to protect Michael’s legacy,” Gordon told the Chronicle in an email. “Michael was very careful about his (intellectual property), knew how to protect it.”
In a statement emailed to the Chronicle, Frank and one of the other investors, John Hansen, called the motion “yet another feeble attempt by the estranged wife Eileen Gordon to re-litigate issues that were exhaustively examined and conclusively resolved by a judge after a lengthily (sic) arbitration.” They added, “We are confident the arbitration award will be upheld.”
Before his death at 61 of anaphylactic shock following an allergic reaction, Chiarello was a major player in Napa Valley’s wine and food industries. He helped catapult the region’s restaurants to international fame after arriving in the 1980s and opening the influential Tra Vigne in St. Helena. Bottega, opened in 2008, became a fixture of the Chronicle’s Top 100 Restaurants list under critic Michael Bauer. Chiarello also owned Coqueta, a Spanish restaurant on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, and Ottimo, a casual pizzeria in Yountville.
Chiarello expanded his reach with a Food Network show, “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello”; a cookware brand, NapaStyle; and a winery, Chiarello Family Vineyards. (He sold NapaStyle several years ago, and the winery is no longer producing new wines, though its remaining bottles are sold at Coqueta.)
Chiarello faced allegations of sexual harassment in lawsuits brought by employees in 2009 and 2016. Chiarello denied the accusations and settled both cases out of court for undisclosed sums.
In the days after his death in October 2023, the investors — Frank, Hansen and Peter Crowley — “began a sustained war on the Estate to seize the assets that Chef Chiarello had built over the decades,” according to the civil lawsuit that the estate filed against investors in July. The filing asserts that the investors tried to wrest control of the restaurants and intellectual property from Gordon, as well as Chiarello’s four children. Gordon and Chiarello separated in 2019 but remained business partners until his death.
At the time, Chiarello owned 70% of Bottega LLC, the entity that controlled the restaurant, Hansen had 8.19% and Frank held a 0.94% interest, Gordon told the Chronicle.
The lawsuit alleges that the investors, with help from the restaurant group’s chief operating officer, David O’Malley, shredded documents; seized Chiarello’s life insurance policy documents, passport and birth certificate; forged Chiarello’s signature on corporate documents; falsified the dates of other signatures; and blocked Gordon and the estate from accessing key files including bank statements and the chef’s personal email.
Frank, Hansen and Crowley made an offer to buy all of Chiarello’s restaurants and assets, including his intellectual property, in February 2024, but Gordon thought the offer was “insulting,” she said, and rejected it.
Rich Frank, former owner of Frank Family Vineyards, with his wife, Leslie Frank, in 2023 in Calistoga. Frank announced that he and partner John Hansen had acquired Bottega restaurant in May 2025.
The lawsuit claims that Hansen and Frank’s actions were aimed at “forcing a sale at a very low price in order to enrich themselves.”
At one point, the lawsuit states, the investors considered selling a liquor license owned by one of Chiarello’s companies, but Frank told Crowley not to do so because it would have benefited Gordon financially. “I do not want to do anything that gives (Gordon) cash or help,” the lawsuit quotes Frank as saying. “The more she gets squeezed the better it is for us.” (The estate obtained this and other correspondence after Gordon fired O’Malley and reviewed his emails.)
The lawsuit also alleges that Frank, who sold Frank Family Vineyards to Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates in 2021 for $315 million, held secret staff meetings at his home and instructed Bottega staff to serve fewer wines from Chiarello Family Vineyards in favor of Frank Family Vineyards wines.
In May 2024, the investors filed a lawsuit claiming that they were entitled to purchase Chiarello’s assets. The case went to arbitration, and in April 2025 an arbitrator found in the investors’ favor. In May 2025, Frank and Hansen announced themselves as the new owners of Bottega. The purchase price was around $1.2 million, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
In this week’s motion, Gordon’s lawyers argue that the arbitrator made that decision based on false information provided by Frank and Hansen.
Chiarello’s business empire was divided into several segments. Each restaurant operated as its own LLC, while a separate legal entity, Gruppo Chiarello Inc., was responsible for the restaurants’ management. Another company, Solo Io Inc., held all of Chiarello’s intellectual property, including the restaurants’ trademarked names, recipes, logos, branding and future licensing opportunities.
The estate argues that the arbitrator wrongfully allowed Hansen and Frank to control Bottega’s intellectual property when they purchased Bottega LLC; the intellectual property was owned by Solo Io Inc., not the restaurant itself. In theory, the ownership of the intellectual property could allow Hansen and Frank to open satellite Bottega restaurants in other cities and use Chiarello’s likeness to promote them.
At stake, the estate contends, is at least “tens of millions of dollars” in economic damages caused to the estate by the investors.
Read the entire article