Less than a month before being named a semifinalist for the James Beard Awards — a competition honoring the country’s finest culinary minds — chef David Zamudio says he was fired.
The action surprised him. For five years, the executive chef reaped praise for his pork-stuffed arepas, red snapper ceviches and tamarind-glazed gyozas with sweet plantains at Station North’s popular Alma Cocina Latina restaurant. He was one of at least four Venezuelan chefs brought to the eatery in recent years on a notoriously difficult to obtain O-1 visa, for “individuals with exceptional talent.”
Now he’s suing the restaurant and its owners, Irena Stein and her husband, Mark Demshak, over alleged fraud, according to a Baltimore lawsuit filed Aug. 1.
Zamudio claims the owners exploited his labor and tricked him into staying at the restaurant on promises of being a part-owner in the establishment. He was never given a stake in the company, despite being offered a third of the business via emails, letters and texts, according to the lawsuit.
The owners’ statements “were made, knowingly and intentionally, to deceive and defraud Mr. Zamudio,” the lawsuit said.
Stein and Demshak “were just served” on Tuesday and are deferring to their lawyer on how to move forward, according to Tara Shepherd, a spokeswoman for the business.
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Zamudio first heard of Alma Cocina Latina while visiting Baltimore as a tourist, he told Atlas Obscura in 2021. His career was already in motion: Zamudio worked in fine dining kitchens across Mexico and Spain, as well as a six-star-rated cruise ship known as the Silversea. A graduate of a culinary program on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, he left the country in search of work.
Poverty rates in Venezuela surged. Stein, who left Venezuela for Stanford University on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1980, told the Baltimore Sun in 2021 that the process of sponsoring Venezuelan chefs like Zamudio and bringing them to the restaurant weighed heavy on her.
It’s not easy. Applicants are required to submit evidence of “extraordinary skills and abilities” in a process that can cost thousands of dollars and take months to complete. The prize is a temporary, up-to-three-year pass that can serve as a strong start to achieving a green card.
More than 60% of Venezuelan households lived in poverty by the time Zamudio was made executive chef of Alma in 2021.
He worked between six and seven days each week as the restaurant settled into a new location in Station North after moving from a prior spot in Canton. He prepared the food, supervised staff and cleaned the eatery, while painting the surrounds and installing shelves, the lawsuit said.
A July 22, 2021, letter referenced in court documents showed Demshak offered Zamudio a third of the business as a reward for allegedly growing the business into a larger enterprise:
“I am the sole owner of Alma, but as of the date of this letter that is no longer the case. You will now own 33% of Alma Cocina Latina LLC… Congratulations and thank you!”
In December that same year, Zamudio texted his supposed partners: “I want to be the owner of alma for my whole life,” he wrote, according to the lawsuit.
But ownership of the restaurant never changed, the suit said. Demshak remained the sole owner until Feb. 10, 2023, when ownership was split, with Stein controlling 40% of the company and Demshak maintaining the other 60%, according to the lawsuit.
Despite Zamudio’s being excluded from the partnership, he was repeatedly referred to as a partner by Stein and Demshak, the lawsuit said.
In a letter of recommendation for Zamudio received on March 22, 2022, Demshak and Stein wrote: “Due to his great contributions to Alma, we have made him a partner!”
In text messages, Demshak and Stein thanked Zamudio for being their partner and alleged to have included him in partner meetings. Demshak relayed the alleged ownership changes to Zamudio’s immigration attorney in a letter in which he called the chef a “one-third owner of Alma.” The remaining two-thirds belonged to Demshak, the lawsuit said.
Demshak also discussed the conditions of Zamudio’s ownership and the amount of profits owed in a July 31, 2023, letter, according to the lawsuit.
Zamudio alleges that he passed on lucrative professional opportunities to continue his work for both Demshak and Stein, who planned to open another restaurant in which Zamudio was offered a chef position and 25% interest. The next-door arepa spot used GoFundMe to collect investments, or crowdfund, more than $80,000 in financing for the eatery. Zamudio is not involved.
The executive chef received his letter of termination on Dec. 30, 2023, “suddenly and without warning,” the lawsuit said, shortly before garnering the restaurant its first James Beard nod; Zamudio was a semifinalist in the Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic category. The restaurant claims that Zamudio has no ownership in the business, according to the lawsuit.
Meanwhile Zamudio claims that the business showed “malicious” and “outrageous” conduct by breaching their contract to share ownership, conflating membership of the LLC with dividing ownership of the company and failing to provide compensation for the promised portion of the profits, despite the alleged financial value Zamudio added to the company, the lawsuit said.
He’s seeking 33% of the restaurant’s value and profits and additional punitive damages of $2 million, the disclosure of the restaurant’s business records starting in July 2021 and a 6% interest on any judgment made by the court.
Zamudio and his attorney Peter Goldman declined to comment.
