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.
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.
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.
Martha Stewart Says Stay in Your Lane
It's impossible to ignore the one and only chef and homemaker extraordinaire Martha Stewart. It's also impossible to ignore her opinions, especially when she calls out other well-known superstars. Stewart at the time was not pleased the A-lister Gwyneth Paltrow was making the transition into home décor. " If she were confident in her acting, she wouldn’t be trying to be Martha Stewart," Stewart said of the actress.
Taking aim at Paltrow where she hoped it would hurt, in the kitchen, Stewart engineers the "conscious coupling," dessert, as a call out. Paltrow raised the bar with her response when she presented her recipe for the "jailbird cake," an obvious reference to Stewart's insider trading and stay behind bars. Those five years are something Martha Stewart will always have that Paltrow will never even attempt to take away.
"Good Try, But You'll Never be Me"
After spending five years behind bars Martha Stewart returned to her celebrity status and didn't waste any time letting her feelings be known. First off, calling out celebrity chef Rachel Ray as a "hack." In Martha's mind, she just wanted to make clear that Ray was neither a real baker of a real chef. She called out Ray's most recent cookbook as a mere carbon copy of Ray's last cookbook with a few edited recipes.
Rachel Ray did not appreciate the newly released Stewart's fighting words. When she was asked what she thought of the newly vocal Stewart Ray had a few questions. “Why would it make me mad? Her skill set is far beyond mine. That’s simply the reality of it.”