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.
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.
A Very Complicated Divorce
When Bobby Flay left Stephanie March it was his third divorce. March claimed that Flay had been involved with numerous other women during their marriage (De Laurentiis not included.) Their separation was a bit dramatic, to say the least. While March never mentioned De Laurentiis she did claim that, among his multiple affairs, Flay had been involved with actress January Jones. When Jones was in a car accident in 2010 the first person she called was Bobby Flay.
No one seems clear on the reason, or at least no one is saying. Flay did show up on the scene, though, which didn't help his case with his wife. To this day Jones has not named who is the father of her son. Flay's name comes up quite a bit in the gossip.
A Bad Mouth
Host of both "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef," and, " Worst Cooks in America," Anne Burrell was a regular sight on culinary TV. However, employees who once worked under Burrell, not on TV, but under her at Centro Vinoteca in New York City, where Burrell worked as executive chef. Employees came forward in 2009 with stories of verbal abuse and discrimination against female employees.
Burrell was accused of using derogatory language and criticizing the appearance of female employees over their work performance. Burrell left Centro Vinoteca in 2008, a year before the allegations surfaced.