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LA chef Adam Perry Lang, owner of APL restaurant in Hollywood, is the subject of the most recent episode of Broken: Seeking Justice, a podcast by Tara Palmeri investigating billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring. The investigation is now casting a wider net to Epstein’s household employees, such as Lang, who may have observed incidents of sexual abuse of underage women.
The podcast follows Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an Epstein victim attempting to reach Lang, who worked as Epstein’s private chef in the early 2000s. Last year, unsealed court documents showed Lang flew with Epstein in private jets and traveled with the billionaire to various properties in Florida, New Mexico, and the Virgin Islands. At the time, Lang responded by claiming that his role for Epstein was “limited to meal preparation” and that he was “unaware of depraved behavior,” extending “sympathy and admiration for the women who have come forward.”
However, Giuffre’s account in the podcast sheds more light onto Lang’s relationship with Epstein as his private chef. During the episode, Giuffre searches for Lang to ask him to speak up against Epstein, who died by suicide while in custody awaiting trial for sex-trafficking charges. Giuffre is seeking support for her case against Epstein’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz, whom she accused of sexual abuse (Dershowitz denies the allegations).
In a comment to the Daily Beast, Lang’s attorney Lawrence Lustberg said Lang is cooperating with New York prosecutors investigating Epstein’s sex ring. Lustberg also said he contacted Giuffre’s lawyer and offered Lang’s assistance, though no conversation has taken place. Lang released a statement to the Broken podcast, saying he never saw any sexual activity or nudity and was never aware of any underage girls. Lang maintains that he never was told of or saw any depraved acts committed by Epstein.
Giuffre specifically reached out to Lang, whom she says had a different position from other staff in Epstein’s hire. Lang not only traveled along with the financier’s various properties, he was asked to memorize the names and food preferences of Epstein’s most honored guests.
While Giuffre alleges most of the sexual abuse she endured happened behind closed doors, she and other young girls would often be naked in the house to the view of everyone, because Epstein “did not like tan lines.” Giuffre said there were naked girls inside and outside the house, with Lang serving them iced tea, water, and fruit platters. Palmeri says several women they spoke with remember Lang at Epstein’s properties, saying he was “very polite.” Epstein allegedly favored petite, pre-pubescent bodies, which led him and co-conspirator Ghislane Maxwell, a close associate who has been charged with facilitating sexual abuse of minors, to closely monitor the girls’ diets.
Lang and Giuffre had more extended interactions because of the strict diets, which entailed organic, low-carb meals. “I went to the kitchen to go get something and I was starving,” said Giuffre, who asked Lang to prepare a pizza for her. This became a nightly routine: “He would have a pizza waiting for me already in the kitchen...we would just have a beer together and eat pizza and just talk. Sometimes I’d help him wash the dishes,” Giuffre said. Maxwell eventually caught wind of the nighttime pizza and beer, reprimanding both Lang and Giuffre, and making sure they would no longer interact.
About seven months ago, leaning on this connection, the podcast follows Palmeri and Giuffre as they attempt to deliver Lang a letter to his Manhattan Beach home that asks him to help those who were abused. Here is an excerpt from the letter:
“I’m sure you’ve heard of Epstein’s short incarceration and subsequential death. He’s gone now. He can’t hurt us anymore, but as you know, it wasn’t just Epstein running the most prolific sex trafficking ring of modern times. He had help, lots of help. That alone leaves me and his uncountable victims searching for justice. Justice comes in many forms. In my case, justice is holding the various perpetrators that participated, enabled, or looked the other way, accountable.
I’m not here to ruin your life. You have so much knowledge of the various people on the planes and his homes and anywhere you would have been with him. You truly can’t say you didn’t know or you can’t remember. You didn’t help when Brad Edwards and I reached out to you in 2014. Jeffrey was alive then and I get it. Maybe you were scared of him. We all were. You have the ability and frankly, the responsibility, to help now
By helping us victims and speaking out with us, not only will you redeem yourself, but you will truly elevate yourself to the status of hero, which is exactly what you could be for me. A hero. I have such fond memories of staying up late, we’d talk, we’d laugh. I consider you my friend, and I hope I still can.”
A woman answers the door to the home, but says Lang isn’t there. Instead they research on Google to discover that Lang is staying at a home in Hermosa Beach owned by Jimmy Kimmel, the late night television host and co-owner in APL restaurant. In January 2019, Lang was involved in a bizarre incident in which he was arrested at Kimmel’s home after a 911 emergency call reported that a man was inside the house making threats with explosives and had assaulted a woman with a rifle. Lang was later cleared of any charges; he was reportedly sound asleep when cops arrived.
Not finding Lang at the Kimmel home, Giuffre and Palmeri continue to attempt to reach Lang by leaving a voice message on a number purportedly belonging to the chef and then heading to his restaurant APL in Hollywood. Palmeri and Giuffre order a meal and ask service staff if Lang is around. Lang did not show up, though he later texted Giuffre to say he had planned to speak with her attorney.
Update: Lang’s attorney gave the following statement:
We have absolutely always been available to the attorneys for the lawyers representing the victims — indeed, we reached out and spoke to one of them many months ago but although we invited a meeting with Adam in no uncertain terms, those attorneys have literally never gotten back to us (although we did hear from other counsel this week). That said, we are in current contact with the federal prosecutors in the Southern District of NY and are fully cooperating with their investigation and remain more than happy to, in coordination with the prosecutors, cooperate with counsel for the victims as well.
