A \u201cswinger\u201d couple behind a ritzy East Hampton catering business is accused of serving not just food but their own sick appetites by propositioning their workers for sex, a scathing lawsuit claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The owner of East Hampton Kitchen, Annie Washburn, and her partner, Michael Castiglione, constantly yapped about their private sex lives, pressured workers to join in the bedroom \u2014 and punished people who complained, the suit alleges.<\/p>\n
Annie Washburn, owner of East Hampton Kitchen, and her partner, Michael Castiglione, allegedly pressured workers into sex. Annie Washburn \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
Former catering manager Emma Beudert, who filed the lawsuit in Suffolk County last month, said the \u201cfrequent and unwelcome\u201d sexual inquiries and open propositioning of staffers were \u201cdisruptive, unlawful and predatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMs. Washburn and Mr. Castiglione were extremely inappropriate in the way they discussed and propositioned Ms. Beudert and others about their sex life,\u201d according to Beudert\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was perpetuated by the frequent unwelcome conversations and discussions about sex, as well as blatant invitations to obtain information from her about other employees with the goal of engaging in sexual activity with [Washburn] and or [Castiglione],\u201d the suit alleges.<\/p>\n
Beudert claims that the swinging couple\u2019s behavior was so normalized, Castiglione even asked her non-work friends for sex almost immediately after meeting them at a concert, the suit explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe East Hampton Kitchen, Ms. Washburn and Mr. Castiglione vehemently deny the fictional allegations contained in the [sic] Ms. Beudert\u2019s complaint,\u201d attorney Michael Garabedian told The Post.<\/p>\n
Neither Beudert nor her attorney responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Emma Beudert, reportedly an East Hampton native, began working for Washburn in April 2024, according to the lawsuit. Emma Beudert \/ LinkedIn<\/p>\n
\u201cThe East Hampton Kitchen, Ms. Washburn and Mr. Castiglione vehemently deny the fictional allegations contained in the [sic] Ms. Beudert\u2019s complaint,\u201d attorney Michael Garabedian told The Post. Annie Washburn \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
During her first week on the job in April 2024, she was driving in a van with Washburn when her new boss started talking to her about sex \u2014 or a lack thereof.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Washburn, the suit claims, said her cancer-suffering partners failed to satiate her sexual appetite, detailing that her sexless 30\u2019s was a result of her cancer patient ex-wife, and Castiglione, who she said currently was battling prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
Beudert balked at the inappropriateness, and said so, the suit says.<\/p>\n
Later that month, a kitchen worker showed her an obscene image of her nude boyfriend who had strategically placed an eggplant over his genitals.<\/p>\n
Washburn, who was working alongside them, brushed off Beudert\u2019s rejection of the digital peep show, and \u201cinstead of admonishing her employee, simply laughed and jokingly said, \u2018Emma doesn\u2019t like that stuff\u2019 and then laughed some more, without addressing her concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
During her first week on the job, she was driving in a van with Washburn when her new boss allegedly started talking to her about sex \u2014 or a lack thereof.\u00a0 Annie Washburn \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
The lawsuit contains several examples of staffers being propositioned to join their \u201copen relationship,\u201d with servers approaching Beudert to describe the uncomfortable asks for sex, sometimes taking place at high-profile events.<\/p>\n
At a wedding in July, Washburn allegedly approached Beudert about a new cater working that night, saying she \u201chad the hots for the red head,\u201d and then asked if she was single.<\/p>\n
Another staffer shared a disturbing boast by Castiglione about his open relationship, sharing that when Washburn desires another man for a bit of rumpy-pumpy, \u201cCastiglione \u2018high fives the men when they walk through the door,\u2019\u201d the suit alleges.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if the sex was to service the erotically-deprived Washburn alone or both lovers as a threesome.<\/p>\n
That August, Beudert attended a non-work concert with the swinging couple and invited some of her friends to join \u2014 who said moments after the concert began that \u201cCastiglione had propositioned her for sex and made her feel so uncomfortable that she wanted to leave the concert,\u201d the suit claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAww I feel bad Michael made Jenny feel uncomfortable,\u201d Washburn said to Beudert when confronted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAww I feel bad Michael made Jenny feel uncomfortable,\u201d Washburn (pictured) said to Beudert when confronted about Castiglione propositioning her non-work friend for sex. Annie Washburn \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
Beudert says that because she denied their sexual advances \u2014 and spoke up for her catering staff \u2014 Washburn and Castiglione eventually directly retaliated, the suit describes.<\/p>\n
They started treating Beudert so harshly, giving her an \u201cunmanageable\u201d workload so burdensome that Washburn and Castiglione joined some staffers teasing her as \u201cCinderella\u201d due to her obvious mistreatment, according to the filing.<\/p>\n
Beudert resigned soon after.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to reports, she currently runs a \u201ccasino-style\u201d sports betting bar in Southampton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cswinger\u201d couple behind a ritzy East Hampton catering business is accused of serving not just food but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15796,2850,57,9,11,10,3644,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-61441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-east-hampton","9":"tag-lawsuits","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-sexual-harassment","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}