Latest news with #42Grams
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Police: Star chef defied no-contact order in domestic battery case, asked woman for bail
The renowned chef accused of assaulting a female relative in his West Palm Beach home is facing new criminal charges after authorities alleged he violated a court order by attempting to contact his accuser. Investigators said Jacob Bickelhaupt — the owner of Konro, Palm Beach County's first Michelin-starred restaurant — made two phone calls from the county jail on June 5 seeking help from the woman he is accused of assaulting. According to a new arrest report, Bickelhaupt left voicemail messages on a business line in which he asked the woman to contact the Public Defender's Office and request that a no-contact order against him be rescinded. Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss declared him indigent after his first arrest. He also asked the woman to help him find someone to pay a percentage of his $90,000 bail. "I love you so much," the arrest report quotes Bickelhaupt as saying on one of the messages. Police had arrested Bickelhaupt, 41, on June 2 on aggravated battery and domestic battery charges after alleging he repeatedly punched and kicked a woman in his home, leaving her with two black eyes, and swelling and bruising on her face. Investigators said the woman attempted to leave the state after the attack by taking a flight from Palm Beach International Airport, but ended up in a West Palm Beach hospital after she suffered a seizure while waiting at the airport's ticket counter. A business partner of the accuser called police and informed them of phone messages, on which Bickelhaupt also reminded the woman that "I can't do the restaurant" while in jail and that he might be in custody "for a very long time … maybe a year" if she did not help him. Bickelhaupt, 41, remains in the Palm Beach County Jail. Bail in his two arrests totals $99,000. As a policy, the public defender's office does not comment on open cases. Bickelhaupt opened Konro in 2023 In April 2024, the Michelin Guide awarded Konro its star. Set off South Dixie Highway near the Norton Museum of Art, it is a menu-free restaurant with 10 counter seats and a three-figure-per-person price tag for admission. It does not appear to have opened since Bickelhaupt's arrest. Bickelhaupt previously ran 42 Grams, a popular restaurant in Chicago, where he also faced an allegation of domestic violence involving a different woman. In June 2017, Chicago police arrested him on charges that he threw the woman to the ground and struck her in the head with a bottle, according to multiple published reports. He pleaded guilty to a charge of simple battery and was ordered to undergo mandatory drug and alcohol testing, complete a domestic violence program and pay fines. Shortly after the Chicago arrest, Bickelhaupt closed 42 Grams, which at one time also earned Michelin-star status. Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@ and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Michelin-starred Konro chef faces new charges in domestic battery case
Chicago Tribune
04-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
South Florida Michelin-star chef, formerly of 42 grams in Chicago, charged with second violent domestic assault
WEST PALM BEACH — A renowned Michelin-star chef based in South Florida with former ties to Chicago is charged with a brutal assault on a woman that left her in critical condition with bleeding in her brain. Jacob Bickelhaupt, 41, a co-founder of Konro in West Palm Beach, had a well-known history of domestic violence. He had pleaded guilty in 2017 to attacking his ex-wife and business partner in Chicago, leading to widespread public backlash across the city and the closure of his Michelin-starred restaurant 42 Grams. But Bickelhaupt's career bounced back after his move to South Florida, where he earned another Michelin star and where, he told the Sun Sentinel in 2022, he was working on himself and making 'amends' for his past behavior. 42 grams chef battered his ex-wife. Now he has filed a $250,000 defamation lawsuit against the chef is charged with another violent domestic assault that left a woman in the intensive care unit in need of emergency surgery. He faces felony counts of aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability and battery causing bodily harm. The victim, who also worked with Bickelhaupt, had collapsed while having a seizure at a Palm Beach International airport ticket counter as she was trying to purchase a flight to Denver, Colo., according to a probable cause affidavit. Had she gotten on the flight, doctors later told her family, she would probably have died. 'They caught her in the nick of time,' her sister said. Paramedics rushed her to St. Mary's Medical Center, where she told Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies that she had been in a car accident. But medical staff told deputies that the woman's injuries were not consistent with a car accident. She had two blackened eyes, facial swelling, bruising from shoulders to wrists, and a subdural hematoma requiring emergency surgery, according to the affidavit. Eventually, she gave a sworn statement to police, where she said that Bickelhaupt had attacked her for two hours as she tried to escape. The attack had begun when she approached him, asleep, on the couch in the early hours of the morning, trying to get him to come to bed, she said, according to the affidavit. They began to argue, and she went back to the bedroom. He followed her, then began to punch her in the face and kick her, causing her to fall to the floor. When she tried to crawl away, he continued to attack her. When West Palm Beach Police officers visited the victim's home later, they found blood splatter in multiple rooms, on bedding, walls, and furniture, according to the arrest report. When the attack was over, the victim managed to get a rideshare to the airport, where she planned to return to Denver, where she had grown up. At the hospital, the woman immediately identified Bickelhaupt as her attacker, but was unable to write her own name or sign the paper because of her 'physical condition rapidly deteriorating,' according to the affidavit. She required emergency surgery for the brain bleed and had an irregular heartbeat. Bickelhaupt was taken into custody the same day. He invoked his Miranda rights and requested his attorney when approached by police. Following a court appearance on June 3, Bickelhaupt was found indigent and granted a public defender. His bond was set at $90,000 along with a no-contact order with the victim, GPS monitoring, and a no-weapons order. He remained in the Palm Beach County jail as of Wednesday afternoon, according to inmate records. Bickelhaupt had initially gained fame with the Chicago-based restaurant 42 Grams, which earned two Michelin stars. Then, exactly eight years ago on June 4, 2017, he was charged with drunkenly attacking his ex-wife, Alexa Welsh, grabbing her by the hair and throwing her to the ground, then striking her with a glass bottle of sparking water. Her injuries required staples, according to Eater Chicago. 'Violence is a cycle. How does the saying go?' Welsh told the Sun Sentinel on Wednesday. ''Those who do not learn history …' I sent [the victim] a message of support. I hope she's able to make a full recovery.' Court documents reveal domestic violence past of 42 Grams chefBickelhaupt was arrested in the 2017 attack on a charge of domestic battery, which was then downgraded to simple battery, to which he pleaded guilty. He was released a month later. 'What I did was a very situational, passionate, alcoholic long story,' he told the Sun Sentinel for a profile in 2022. 'It was horrible, and it never should have happened, and what I did was 100 percent wrong. And that's why I'm trying to make amends to all that stuff. I'm going to live with what I did forever. I punish myself more than anyone else can punish me, I promise you that.' After the attack and the ensuing backlash, he moved to West Palm Beach in 2022 and co-founded Konro, which earned its own Michelin star in 2025. In response to questions about Bickelhaupt, Michelin said in a statement Wednesday that it 'firmly condemns all acts of violence, aggression and harassment, which violate fundamental human rights and severely impinge on the values of an entire profession. Since its inception in 1900, The MICHELIN Guide's purpose has been to provide consumers with dining recommendations enabling them to enjoy high-quality food and drink. Above all, the Guide recognizes collective achievement by awarding distinctions to restaurants rather than to chefs.' Asked whether Bickelhaupt would have his star for Konro removed, the organization said 'MICHELIN Stars are annual distinctions and therefore our Inspectors revisit the restaurants annually. At this time, Konro has been listed as temporarily closed on our website as we update all restaurants in real-time.'
