Hollywood News Now: Celebrity Chef Refuses To Open New Businesses In California Until They 'Fix Things'

Celebrity chef Andrew Gruel, the founder of popular restaurants in California, a judge on Food Network's Food Truck Face Off, and a host of FYI's Say It to My Face!, said he won't open another business in California until they "actually fix things."

In an interview with Fox Business, Gruel discussed how California restaurants continue to grapple with the repercussions of COVID-19 restrictions. According to Fox, 30% of restaurants were forced to shutdown due to the pandemic, and Gruel said that number "actually seems even low."

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Gruel pointed out, "The pandemic, obviously, kicked off this astronomical firestorm of chaos that now we've seen reverberate and grow many lives of their own in regards to all this chaos, especially across the restaurant industry." He continued to say that things are "constantly getting worse every single day."

Although he doesn't hold animosity toward Dr. Fauci, Gruel still thinks he's "the man behind all of the science that was constantly held in front of our faces to justify everything that we have had to go through, and he sits there, and there's absolutely no reckoning."

In September 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California Assembly Bill 1287 into law, introducing a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers, up from $16.21. According to the Hoover Institution, California fast-food restaurants cut about 9,500 jobs between last fall and January, with more job losses to come.

Fast-food prices have also increased since April 1, when the law took effect. Per Kalinowski Equity Research, Wendy's prices went up 8%, Chipotle's 7.5%, Starbucks' 7%, and others between 3% and 4%, reports NBC Los Angeles. According to their estimates, California is now the state with the highest fast-food prices in the country, while others put it in fourth place, just behind Hawaii, New York, and New Jersey.

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Some restaurant chains went further than slashing jobs; they shutdown some or all of their locations in the state. One such chain is Rubio's Coastal Grill, a popular Mexican chain known for its fish tacos. As of May 31, the company closed 48 underperforming restaurants in California, citing "the rising cost of doing business in California."

For Gruel, apart from rising labor costs and doing business in general, crime, regulation, and taxes are even more to blame for these closures and layoffs. He believes that the rise in crime has "ripped apart the social fabric," which is the foundation of business. He also says that regulations have piled up when, at the same time, business was going down.

When asked directly whether he thought of leaving California, Gruel said that he'll keep his one restaurant in the state and plans to franchise out of California, concluding, "I will not open another business in California until they fix things on a go-forward basis."

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