Host change at Dinner: Impossible

[FlourPower]

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Celebrity chef Robert Irvine blew into town two years ago with the panache of royalty, the ego of a TV star and a plan to turn St. Petersburg into "the next Monaco."

He was about to launch a show on the Food Network, Dinner: Impossible, and was writing a cookbook. Soon the muscle-bound Brit was downing oysters, clinking glasses and telling incredible tales.

He was a knight. He owned a castle in Scotland. He had cooked for presidents and royalty and was pals with Prince Charles.

Robert Irvine's magnum opus - side-by-side restaurants called Ooze and Schmooze - was supposed to redefine upscale dining.

The restaurants would open with 7,000 square feet at the base of a sparkling condominium tower at 400 Beach Drive, a crepe toss from sailboats lolling on Vinoy Basin. He promised chef's tasting menus, polished personal service and 100 wines.

Everyone bought it.

The whole article.

[Jane Die]

There's no business like show business.

[gfweb]

FN has taken his name off of the list of chef/host bios on their website. Hmmm.

[Jane Die]

Sometime around the Christmas/Yule season of 2007, I ran across him on the Home Shopping Network selling a bunch of cheap junk called "ROYAL TITANIUM" cookware and nonsensical kitchen accessories.

I just did a search for both Robert Irvine and Royal Titanium cookware at HSN, and absolutely nothing comes up now. Not sure why, however. Could be HSN found out?

The word jackass comes to mind. Can I say that word here?

Jackass?

[gfweb]

anybody here ever actually work for him in a kitchen?

[oneidaone]

All this aside I watched his show from Hawaii with Sam Choy last night, the mission was a luau for 150 in a ridiculous amount of time. Anyway to FN error and lack of editing or fact checking instead of shutome for swordfish they kept captioning it as "Shitome"

which was kind of funny, how hard would that be to verify correctly?

[Kris]

Sometime around the Christmas/Yule season of 2007, I ran across him on the Home Shopping Network selling a bunch of cheap junk called "ROYAL TITANIUM" cookware and nonsensical kitchen accessories.

I just did a search for both Robert Irvine and Royal Titanium cookware at HSN, and absolutely nothing comes up now. Not sure why, however. Could be HSN found out?

The word jackass comes to mind. Can I say that word here?

Jackass? 

←

HSN stopped selling his cookware/kitchen accessories line once they found out about all of his lies:

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/2/21/326532.html

[Batard]

Robert Irvine of Food TV’s 'Dinner Impossible’ apparently exaggerated a bit on his resume. At the time, Irvine claimed that he had helped design Princess Diana's wedding cake, worked at the White House, and has fed many of the great heads of state from around the world. He also claimed to have received a degree from the University of Leeds. ”I was wrong to exaggerate in statements related to my experiences in the White House and the Royal Family,” said Irvine.

Full story here:

http://www.wfsb.com/foodnews/15454213/detail.html

Edit: Edited as per staff request.

Edited March 2, 2008 by Batard (log)

[cathrynapple]

I can't find the place where he apologizes for his inappropriate kitchen tantrums and trite appetizers.

[msfurious1]

The "embellishments" to his resume came to light a few weeks ago when this article was printed in the St. Petersburg Times. I believe that's when the network received many emails and started looking into his background. The Food Network should have done some fact checking before.

Maybe it all sounded good to them and he seems to be a convincing man.

I hope that he at least will still open the Ooze and Schmooze restaurants.

[cathrynapple]

I dunno. Whenever he "casually" mentioned outrageous cooking experiences (he pretty much claimed to have cooked for most of the kings and queens in the world) I was very skeptical.

"Yeah, I had this problem once when I was cooking for Chairman Mao."

Right.

[Jane Die]

Just thinking out loud here. I bet that if I had my own cooking show on The Food Network and claimed to be knighted (or the female equivalent) by the Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II, Her Majesty's Secret Service would be coming down on my lying self like a swarm of angry hornets and, undoubtedly, there would be hell to pay.

So I'm just wondering.

[Ted Fairhead]

Just thinking out loud here.    I bet that if I had my own cooking show on The Food Network and claimed to be knighted (or the female equivalent) by the Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II, Her Majesty's Secret Service would be coming down on my lying self like a swarm of angry hornets and, undoubtedly, there would be hell to pay.

So I'm just wondering. 

←

The female equivalent of a Knight is "Dame". BTW, it is properly, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Her Royal Highness would refer to her daughter.

[Jane Die]

Thank you for that correction, Mr. Fairhead.

~~Dame Jane

(formerly known as Damn Jane)

[KatieLoeb]

~~Dame Jane

    (formerly known as Damn Jane)

←

OK. That's some funny stuff. But really. How could the network blame anyone but themselves for not doing the simple fact checking on the resume?? If the references weren't provided, I'd have certainly asked for a number of someone, anyone inside Buckingham Palace walls to corroborate this dude's story. When you're working that closely with high profile folk, there's bound to be a security clearance required. The paper trail exists, you just need to find it. I've seen dishwashers and bussers have to be cleared by Secret Service for a one time catering gig that the president would be attending. If you claim to have been baking the future King's wedding cake, I'm pretty sure you've had a cavity search as well as your report cards from all of your elementary education scanned and analyzed. There's no way that a file with his name on it isn't in somebody's file cabinet if he's not completely fabricating the story.

Edited March 2, 2008 by KatieLoeb (log)

[cathrynapple]

Personally, I'm glad they fired him. I'm not surprised he lied on his resume. His persona on the show makes me expect that from him. The show is contrived and the food he makes is boring and "been done before."

I laughed my butt off when he made the smoked salmon mousse on a cucumber slice. Remember when Hung was chastised endlessly on Top Chef for the same dish? Heh.

[JeanneCake]

what happened to once burned, twice shy? The FN should have known better after the Network Star thing when one of the finalists had been found to have fabricated or embellished some of his credentials. At that point, they should have gone and done due diligence on ALL the on air talent regardless. No exceptions, no excuses. Robert Irvine isn't the only one with egg on the face here.

[CKatCook]

I am not shocked he lied. I am shocked no one checked. My god, as if the food network has not gone far enough down hill!

Dame -> that's a good one! !

[nliedel]

The Food Network is sort of getting a reputation for not checking things out. Although they hired Robert Irvine before the whole, "Next Food Network Star" debacle. I've watched the show. It's less about good food than entertainment. Which is true for many of their shows.

The interesting thing is that they had a marathon of his shows on yesterday.

[Joisey]

anybody here ever actually work for him in a kitchen?

←

I've worked with people who were employed under him in Atlantic City and the term "Jackass" is indeed appropriate according to them.

[tino27]

Just to add a little conspiracy theory to the mix ...

IMHO, TFN has clearly shown (and stated as much) that they are about generating as much viewership (and thus ad revenue, product tie-in, etc.) as possible. I suspect there are two situations possible here:

1) They were too lazy to check Irvine's resume references

2) They DID check his references, but because he tested so positively, they kept quiet about it

In either case, as long as no one complained about it, there was nothing to do but pimp him out just like all of their other celebrity chefs. Once he was exposed for the fraud, the only thing they could do to save "face" was to fire him. I would even venture to bet that he got a nice settlement to walk away quietly. Integrity hasn't exactly been TFN's strongest suit up till now, why would they start with this incident?

[Ted Fairhead]

I am not excusing Robert Irvine but I wonder how many chefs have lied on their resumes. I suspect a resume ain't worth much when it comes to cooking. Unless someone has already established him/her self in a high profile position then doesn't a chef have to prove himself to the management of a restaurant or hotel on a probationary period or by practical demonstration?

Of course, with the FN all bets are off...they aren't showing food preparation, its just another lousy reality show.

Being curious, is FN owned by one of the Networks or is it really an independent entity?

[handmc]

I hope his Dinner Impossible remains cancelled after this season. I hate the show, boring, stupid, contrived drivel.

It is fitting that his restaurants are named Ooze and Schmooze. It accurately reflects the quality of programing he was part of.

[tino27]

Being curious, is FN owned by one of the Networks or is it really an independent entity?

←

Click here for that answer.

[ThatGrrl]

I dunno. Whenever he "casually" mentioned outrageous cooking experiences (he pretty much claimed to have cooked for most of the kings and queens in the world) I was very skeptical.

"Yeah, I had this problem once when I was cooking for Chairman Mao."

Right.

←

Well, he did cook for "royalty" in that RenFair challenge.