False Resume Gets Chef Cut From Food Network

[liberalnurse]

http://www.daytondailynews.com/e/content/shared-gen/ap/TV/People_Chef_Dismissed.html

NEW YORK — After rising to culinary stardom preparing impossible meals on his Food Network series, Robert Irvine has met an obstacle his kitchen prowess couldn't overcome — an embellished resume.

The star of "Dinner: Impossible" has acknowledged fabricating some of the more fantastic parts of his resume, including having cooked for Britain's Royal Family and various U.S. presidents.

Following the revelations, the network announced it would not renew Irvine's contract, though it would air the remaining episodes of the current season, the series' fourth.

"I was wrong to exaggerate in statements related to my experiences in the White House and the Royal Family," Irvine said in a written statement. "I am truly sorry for misleading people and misstating the facts."

The Food Network said it might revisit its decision at the end of this season, but for now would begin searching for a new host for the series, which challenged Irvine to cook under arduous conditions.

"We rely on the trust that our viewers have in the accuracy of the information we present, and Robert challenged that trust," the network said in a written release.

Irvine, who is from England, first acknowledged the fabrications in a Feb. 17 story in the St. Petersburg Times.

[Vinca]

1. It gets worse for Robert Irvine -

He was Sir Robert to his American audience, but as far as the English royal family are concerned it's a case of: "Who the bloody hell are you?"

Robert Irvine, a British-born chef with a successful cooking show in the US, has been outed as a fraud after Buckingham Palace said it could not verify his vastly exaggerated resume.

Irvine, 42, is the presenter of Dinner: Impossible on the Food Network. He recently admitted to lying about being made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and receiving a castle from the Queen.

Irvine claimed he was discovered by heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, while he was a chef on a Royal Navy vessel.

The story broke in Florida paper the St Petersburg Times.

The flamboyant chef was also at the centre of a row involving a series of creditors and angry Floridians after plans for twin restaurants, to have been called Ooze and Schmooze, collapsed amid acrimony and recrimination.

His website consultant said he was owed thousands, the interior decorator was reportedly suing Irvine and a local marketing firm said he owed it more than $US100,000 ($106,400), the paper wrote.

The owner of a marketing firm, Wendy LaTorre, said she had introduced Irvine to an elite circle of St Petersburg socialites.

When she asked how he wanted to be introduced, he replied: "Sir Robert Irvine, Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order."

"He said there were five levels of knights, and KCVO is the highest level of knight you could be. The Queen handpicks you," Ms LaTorre told the paper.

The designer for the twin restaurants also said Irvine asked him to create a display box to show his so-called "royal uniform", which looked like a Three Musketeers costume, the Times wrote.

Irvine claimed he worked as a travelling chef for Charles and Diana for a decade, during which time he cooked for former US presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

However a recent inquiry into the facts in his autobiography, Mission: Cook, revealed much of his history was concocted.

His US cooking show will now run to the end of its fourth season, but the Food Network said it would not renew his contract.

When contacted at his New Jersey home by the Times, Irvine said: "I met people with all this money, it was like trying to keep up with the Joneses. I was sitting in a bar one night and that came out. It was stupid."

The Times also wrote about a quote from Irvine found at the bottom of his resume, outlined in bold.

"My passion is to reach beyond inspiration - to be spectacularly creative," it reads.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/royal-story-all-cooked-up/2008/03/04/1204402403985.html

[kestrel91316]

2. "Spectacularly creative"............well, he is THAT.