A Passion for ripping people off
Overview
STOP 🛑 eating at The Greedy Chef ‘Nic Watt’s’ Auckland restaurants. The ruthless Chef has again ripped off loyal employees, Ministry of Social Development, Inland Revenue and investors to maintain his instagram lifestyle. Following a string of failed restaurants including TFY and INCA vile Nic Watt has yet again left staff, revenue, creditors and investors hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket while miraculously maintaining his luxury instagram lifestyle.
The Crooked Celebrity chef has recently opened a new, “upmarket” restaurant at Auckland’s Commercial Bay despite owing 22 former staff members nearly $67,000 in wages and holiday pay.
An out of pocket ex-employee of Watt’s failed Inca Newmarket eatery has approached Stuff saying he feels “disrespected” after learning of his former boss’ new venture. Watt is the renowned restaurateur behind Auckland joints Masu, on Federal Street, and Inca, on Ponsonby’s Richmond Road. He’s appeared on television and, according to his bio, once had his own TV show - Testing the Menu.
Inca Newmarket, registered as Inca Watt Ltd, entered liquidation in November, owing creditors hundreds of thousands of dollars. This month, Watt appeared in Heart of the City publicity material, promoting his new "smart casual, upmarket" restaurant, CanTing, set to open later this year.
A former Inca Newmarket employee this week told Stuff that was hard to take when he and his colleagues were still owed wages, holiday pay and other entitlements like tips and pay in lieu of a notice period When Inca Newmarket folded, Watt said the liquidators’ top priority would be paying staff. Stuff understands Watt told staff it was his personal priority, too.
But the former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was still owed more than $10,000
He felt “disrespected” after reading Watt was opening a new restaurant when staff, despite suggestions they’d be prioritised, were thousands of dollars out of pocket.
A second liquidators report, released late-May, said 22 employees were owed $66,897 in wages and holiday pay.
It’s understood their notice period entitlements were being treated as standard claims, as opposed to preferential. The second liquidators report revealed roughly $216,500 was owed to unsecured parties.
The ex-Inca employee told Stuff he felt a sense of “anger and disappointment” after reading about Watt’s latest venture. "It's just frustration and anger that he can continue to trade,” he said. "We're still sat here thousands of dollars out of pocket."
He said he hadn’t heard from Watt since the time of the liquidation and had received sporadic correspondence from liquidators as the winding up progressed.
Earlier this year, staff were told there were no funds available for preferential claims at that time. This included wages and holiday pay owed, Stuff understands.
As of May 29, it was “unknown” whether any money would be available for such creditors, including staff.
Questions included whether it remained a “priority” to pay staff, and what support they’d received since their positions were terminated. “While the liquidation is still in process, I am unable to make any comment,” Watt replied.
Last November, Watt said the decision to close was “gut-wrenching”. It came after Inca Newmarket survived through multiple Covid-19 lockdowns.
I’ve been in the industry for 32 years and the last 12 months have undoubtedly been the most challenging we’ve seen for the hospitality sector, with no respite in sight,” Watt said.
The business was “no longer sustainable” given rent increase and cost-of-living challenges.
“Having exhausted all other financial options available, it has been a gut-wrenching realisation that there is no other option for Inca Newmarket,” Watt said.
“We have barely held on in riding out the challenges of the last couple of years and now the reality of the continuing economic headwinds has made it untenable to remain open.”
Liquidators PKF recorded financial difficulties, due to the economy’s “impact on spending and high overheads”, as the reason for the closure. According to Heart of the City, Watt’s new restaurant, CanTing, will be a “smart casual, upmarket modern Chinese” bar and restaurant, offering a “harmonious fusion of tradition and innovation which immerses you in a culinary journey”.
Vision & Beliefs
If you care about workers rights and cost of living crisis STOP ✋ Refuse to eat at his overpriced restaurants and boycott Watt’s Auckland eateries.
Proof of
Extent of Crooked Chef Nic Watt’s Fraud and Deceit
VOTE WITH YOU’RE FEET
Stop 🛑 eating at Watt’s Restaurants NOW
Restaurants sampled in Auckland are serving up bluefin tuna without informing their customers know they are dining on an endangered species, according to a new study in PLoS ONE. Using DNA barcoding researchers from the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics found that nearly a third of tuna sampled in MASU restaurant in Auckland and thirty restaurants in New Zealand served bluefin tuna, and nine of the restaurants did not label the tuna as bluefin.
“When you eat sushi, you can unknowingly get a critically endangered species on your plate,” says University of Auckland . “But with an increasingly popular technique, DNA barcoding, it is a simple process for researchers to see just what species are eaten at a sushi bar.”
It wasn’t just endangered species that were on the menu: restaurants also served a fish called ‘escolar’, which is banned in Italy and Japan because it can cause gastrointestinal distress. Five of nine sushi samples that were labeled as “white tuna” were not tuna at all, but were in fact escolar.
“It is very difficult to get reliable information about the species you are eating, especially since the approved market name for all eight species of Thunnus is simply ‘tuna’. It is required that tuna be listed as individual species, it would allow consumers to make an informed decision.
There are three species of bluefin tuna: Pacific bluefin, Northern bluefin, and southern bluefin. Both the northern and the southern bluefin are classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List. The Pacific bluefin is considered Vulnerable. Scientists with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) recently recommended that the fishery end harvesting of the Atlantic tuna, or northern bluefin tuna, due to overfishing. ICCAT, however, ignored the advice of its scientists and set a quota for this year of 13,500 tons of fish.