Star, Robert Irvine, was exposed in 2008 as being faker than the icing roses on a birthday cake. He was fired from his show on the Food Network for faking his resume. These weren’t small fibs or inconsistencies either. Irvine claimed he had baked the wedding cake for Princess Diana’s wedding and that he had been honored as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
Obviously, his history and his credibility came under scrutiny. It wasn’t just British royalty the chef claimed to have served, but he even insisted he had been working in the kitchens at the White House as well. In the end, Irvine had actually at one point, been employed at the White House. The Food Network gave him his job back a year later.
The Least Talented Chef Ever
Andrew Zimmerman had no respect in 2009 when the Bizarre Foods host said a few not-too-kind things about fellow celeb chef Tyler Florence. It was that year that Florence found himself starring on the reality show, Momma's Boys. Zimmerman took out his disrespect in writing on his blog, letting his followers know how little entertainment he found on his TV.
"Monday's episode featured the world's least talented TV chef, Tyler Florence, once again churning out the questionable cooking advice and leading the ladies through a menu of the Mom’s fave recipes. Watching Florence wolf down the food, stare and ogle every [expletive] that strolled by his cutting board and play the role of local TV stud was high-comedy of the highest order," he wrote. Harsh words for such a small-time show.
The Past Lives of Paula Deen
Back in the days of 2013 Food Network megastar Paula Deen could not remember what century she was working in. A former employee, Lisa Jackson, who had managed Deen's restaurant, Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House, sued both Deen and her brother, Earl "Bubba" Hiers. The siblings were accused of discriminating on the basis of race and sex in the workplace.
The accusation specifically stated that Deen had wanted to throw her brother a wedding in the "Southern plantation-style." What did that mean exactly? It meant black men dressed in bowties and jackets acting as waiters. But when Deen was talking about using black men in bowties, she did not use the term, "black men."
This Chef Avoids Her Own Food
It was a few years ago that an unnamed source let Page Six know that famed chef Giada De Laurentiis does not eat her own food. Even those "tastes" she takes on her famed television show are, shall we say, fake. Onset she has a "dump bucket" where she spits those little tastes between takes.
That's pretty gross. It's always weird behind the scenes on television shows I guess. Sometimes it would be better not to know. But hey, no wonder she stays so skinny.
Bobby Flay vs. Giada De Laurentiis
2014 was not a great year for celebrity chef marriages. Both Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay divorced their spouses, Todd Thompson and Stephanie March respectively. Rumors swirled that the two were planning to be together, but the timing, in the end, was only a coincidence. Though, the pair had been spending a lot of time together for work.
De Laurentiis actually stopped talking to Flay after the pair competed together on Iron Chef against Mario Batali and Rachel Ray. Batali and Ray came out on top and, it seems, Flay didn't take the loss as seriously as his cooking partner had hoped he would.