‘You and your phone!‘: Video, staff expose ‘unhinged' Pietro Barbagallo

The Age

2 days ago

Dimmed lights, soft music and the smell of fresh sugo greeted the friends as they entered popular Italian eatery Kaprica for dinner.
It was a bustling Thursday evening at the heritage-listed terrace, with almost every white-clothed table filled as the trio took their seats. They were excited to try the Carlton restaurant that had recently gone viral on social media.
They ordered wine and starters, but when the prawn pasta arrived, it was simply too spicy and the waitress agreed to replace the dish. The nasty turn the night then took was caught on camera.
Footage obtained by The Age shows one of the customers recording a video message to his partner complaining about the spice of the food before celebrated chef Pietro Barbagallo looms in the corner of the clip.
He stands over the customer, admonishing him, before shouting profanities at the group, pulling their tablecloth, smashing the remaining plates and glasses.
'Turn that f---ing phone off! You and your f---ing phone!' Barbagallo shouted at customers, as they screamed and exited the venue. 'Get out of my f---ing restaurant!'
Interviews with 19 current and former employees at Barbagallo's restaurants suggest this incident was not isolated, with allegations of aggressive outbursts stretching back decades. The claims come as the wider industry is struggling to overcome a historic work-hard-play-hard culture that critics say enabled poor conduct by those in positions of power.
Barbagallo, who was credited by The Age in 2005 with kick-starting Melbourne's 'pizza revolution', also stands accused of indecent exposure, inappropriate sexual comments towards staff and financial mismanagement across his venues.
Barbagallo did not respond to repeated requests for comment or to a detailed list of emailed questions. When this masthead approached him at his restaurant this week again asking him to respond to the allegations, particularly of indecent exposure, he said, 'no, no, no' before closing and locking the door.
Carly Lauder worked for the celebrated chef in the early 2000s at his former restaurant, I Carusi in Brunswick. Having built a career in hospitality – where she still works today – Lauder said Barbagallo was by far the worst person she has ever worked for.
'It was relentless,' she said. 'He smashed plates on peoples' tables. He would shout all the time, throw things, smash glasses and plates.'
She described two incidents as particularly memorable. She alleges Barbagallo once threw a pizza shovel at her head, then on a separate occasion exposed his genitals to her at his house after offering her cocaine and champagne.
'He disappeared then returned shaking his dick in everyone's face,' Lauder said. 'That was the only time he took his clothes off, but he made lewd disgusting sexual gestures towards all of us all the time. It was way before #MeToo. None of us ever thought to push back.'
This account was corroborated through interviews with three people Lauder told at the time.
Lauder decided to tell her story after The Age 's Good Food published a positive review of Kaprica last month.
'He's been doing this the whole time, and he's still being held up on a pedestal,' she said.
In recent months, several waitstaff have resigned from Kaprica citing Barbagallo's aggressive behaviour, including Petrea James, who said his outbursts were frequent.
'I've seen him throw cutlery when he's mad, throw plates and smash them against the wall,' she said. 'It's quite scary and dehumanising.'
'What the hell?'
The Age interviewed five eyewitnesses to Barbagallo's plate-smashing incident in April. They said he had appeared under a 'cloud' throughout his shift.
One of the affected customers said the intensity of the chilli on the pasta made it 'inedible' and that the waitress agreed to replace the dish as the complaint was not new – customers had complained about the spice before.
When the waitress returned to the kitchen to deliver the news, Barbagallo became enraged. He accused the customers of having eaten some of the pasta and smashed the ceramic plate against a kitchen wall.
'All the pasta was running down the wall,' said one witness.
One customer was later filming a video message to send to his partner about his 'burnt lips', when Barbagallo confronted the table.
His 'yelling and screaming' was heard from the street. One witness thought 'a homeless person was in there attacking someone'. Inside, the usually bustling restaurant fell silent.
'It was incredibly awkward,' one witness said. 'The music was playing but everyone was shocked and disturbed.'
From outside the restaurant, two witnesses saw a chair fly out the front door towards the customer. Two waitresses were seen exiting the venue, one in tears.
'The workers told us it was definitely not the customers' fault,' one witness told The Age. 'I was like, surely it wasn't the owner. The place is so well-known. We were like, 'What the hell?''
While the incident came as a shock to customers, staff were not surprised. James joined Kaprica in mid-2024 and says she was warned Barbagallo had a 'temper'. She had worked with unpredictable bosses before in hospitality, and needed the money, so took the job.
She said his aggression quickly crossed a line, describing regular 'outbursts' where he was 'shaking, pacing, throwing his arms around' as he allegedly berated staff.
'He would say things like 'you're all f---ing idiots and I'm the biggest idiot for hiring you all'. Your blood would run cold,' she said.
Accounts of Barbagallo's volatile behaviour were supported by almost all staff interviewed by this masthead, who separately claimed he would have 'melt-downs', 'screaming matches' and 'explosions' of anger.
A dozen women who worked in various roles around Barbagallo backed these claims but declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.
One woman alleged he threw plates or 'pans of hot food' every couple of weeks.
Another woman said she 'literally had a plate thrown at me' by Barbagallo.
'There's definitely some severe personality issues there,' the woman said. 'He's totally unhinged, totally.'
A third woman described an incident where Barbagallo allegedly held a plate above a customer's head and screamed: 'I'm going to smash your head in if you don't f---ing leave my restaurant' after the customer complained about slow service. 'And then he kind of switched back, was like, 'Are you OK?''
Another employee described feeling 'frozen' by his aggression. The staff taught each other to 'just nod and look down' until he stopped yelling, in episodes that appeared 'manic' and like he was 'stuck in a loop'.
'If you apologise or even God forbid try to explain the mistake, he just gets angrier and angrier and angrier and angrier and reiterates the same point over and over and over again.'
James said the outbursts made her feel anxious, as Barbagallo switched between abusive and friendly. 'I got the shakes,' she said. 'To be honest, you get goosebumps. It's hard.'
When James quit earlier this year, she sent a text message to Barbagallo, citing his 'serious aggression and conflict'.
'I find the way you speak to your staff extremely inappropriate,' she wrote.
Barbagallo responded: 'No problem.'
Another staff member, who did not want to be named, sent a similar resignation text message this year, calling out Barbagallo's 'unacceptable behaviour' and prior 'outbursts'.
He responded: 'Sorry you feel that way'.
Fourteen former staff members alleged varying levels of sexually inappropriate behaviour from Barbagallo, ranging from comments about their appearances and over-sharing about his own sexual experiences.
In the early 2000s, Lauder alleged Barbagallo 'always spoke about sex', had sexual relationships with his employees, and openly talked about plans to hire attractive young women.
One former staff member, who quit last month after she was reduced to tears by Barbagallo multiple times, was critical of this language.
'That was kind of sickening to me, even still, just because of how sexualised I know all the service staff are in the way that is almost like an active decision when they're hired.'
The employee said Barbagallo would 'look you up and down' before hiring staff and often turned away men with experienced resumes.
James supported this position, saying Barbagallo often hired women in their early 20s who worked part-time while studying nearby at Melbourne University.
She said Barbagallo routinely commented on the appearance of customers and waitstaff, including herself when she dyed her hair a darker red colour.
'He told me I looked goth, really good. He wouldn't stop commenting on it. It was just classic creepy boss vibes,' James said.
'Then he would always point out other people who dressed goth to me, and then tell me he wanted to do bad things to them. That he knew he shouldn't like them but he does and that just makes it all the more enticing.'
Another former waitress alleged Barbagallo also made sexualised comments to her, including telling her she could work fewer shifts because 'essentially men would pay for my company … And I could sell my body'.
'It was surprising at the time but not infrequent,' she said.
The same woman recalled him saying 'she's so hot I would f--- her' about a customer, and sharing stories about his sexual experiences and drug-taking.
'It became common knowledge to know his ex-lovers' full names because he would talk about it,' she said.
Three employees who worked with Barbagallo at I Carusi in the early 2000s said Barbagallo had sexual relationships with much younger staff.
'I remember at the time being like why the f--- are her parents not stepping in here?' one former employee said, noting the staff, though younger, were still consenting adults.
'He was so inappropriate with all the young staff, myself included. He'd touch your back when you walked past him. He was so creepy. It was such a gnarly vibe.'
Barbagallo came onto Melbourne's culinary scene in 1998, opening a no-frills pizza restaurant in Brunswick East, I Carusi.
He expanded over the years to open venues in St Kilda and Melbourne's CBD, where complaints of aggressive and inappropriate behaviour continued to mount.
Barbagallo was declared bankrupt in 2011, according to corporate documents, and shut his Lonsdale Street restaurant and ended his involvement with all I Carusi restaurants.
Public bankruptcy documents obtained by The Age that were signed in June 2011 show Barbagallo had $500 to his name and debts of $1,223,631, including $267,000 to Carusi and $40,000 to Mercedes-Benz Finance.
When he opened Kaprica in Carlton soon after, Barbagallo reportedly 'slaved away solo in the kitchen' for the first six months 'almost like he was doing penance'.
But staff claim there was a haphazard approach to managing the restaurant's finances.
'The entire business was in cash,' said one person who worked as Barbagallo's informal assistant in 2015. 'So we were paid in cash, payments from customers were in cash. I would drive my bike to deposit like $15,000 worth of cash and he would pay his rent and children's lessons out of that money.'
Kaprica has long been popular with locals, and moved to a two-storey venue on Grattan Street as demand expanded over the years. However, bookings from new customers have rocketed in the past 18 months after Kaprica engaged marketing firm Einwick and social media producer Hano Lokman to advertise the venue.
Lokman's videos used off-beat scripts and dim lighting to create short fictional narratives to promote the restaurant, clocking up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Multiple current and former staff said the social media craze strained the business as Barbagallo would over-book, causing long waits for tables or service.
'When it started getting busy, it [aggression] was more frequent because he literally couldn't manage the restaurant and manage himself,' alleged one former employee.
While Kaprica paid an hourly rate higher than average, more than a dozen employees said Barbagallo does not provide payslips and transfers wages directly to bank accounts using calculations from paper time sheets.
Two employees became worried about Barbagallo's failure to pay superannuation and tax on their wages last year, and were given access to his books for a day in an attempt to solve their issues.
'It was sheets of random bits of paper strewn around the place, and there were things like where there would be a month missing from this person's pay.'
'Then it took months for it to go to the accountant and be in the accounts. It was just an incredible level of procrastination.'
Screenshots from a WhatsApp group of Kaprica staff show conversations about payment irregularities were common.
'Sorry to keep asking but does anyone have news on tax?' one employee wrote last September.
'No,' another responded. 'Last I heard he messaged his accountant and he never got a response … Not really a good enough reason, it's his responsibility.'
Text messages show another employee was sacked this month after they told Barbagallo they were underpaid for public holiday shifts and pushed for their full entitlements.
'Yep there is a mistake on my behalf which I'll fix tonight,' Barbagallo responded. 'Also you should learn some manners. And finally I think it best you found employment elsewhere.'
The employee responded: 'Manners?? Why am I being fired?'
It took weeks of messages for Barbagallo to pay the employee, who followed up multiple times.
Another former employee said she saw text messages on the restaurant phone from a former staff member begging for superannuation payments months after they had left.
'We would get text after text from this employee who was like, 'Come on Pietro … It's been six months. How are you still not replying to me? Please.' He was ignoring her.'
Lauder said these were longstanding practices and behaviours that Barbagallo needed to be held accountable for.
'I've been in the industry for 31 years. I've worked as a chef, front-of-house, late-night cocktail bars.
'I don't think there is ever any reason for anyone to lose their shit, shout at people, throw things. Nothing is ever that stressful.