Dinner Impossible host fired for lying on resume

From today's Trib:

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 his resume, including having cooked for Britain's royal family and U.S. presidents.

As a result, the network announced it would not renew Irvine's contract.

Full article located here

I'm not a big fan of this show as it always seemed to be over the top to me, but this is just one more nail in the credibility coffin for the Food Network.

Can't stand the show...though I've found myself hypnotized by it a late night or three. Oh! The (non) suspense of it all!

Rather, the host's bizarre steroidal bulk does the mesmerizing.

Pure speculation: I'm not surprised he invented parts of his resume', I've found men who inflate their bodies to the neurotic heights he does do so as a projection of "issues."





fyi: I'm not criticizing muscle building per se, but rather those who use it to mutilate their bodies.

How did they not look into this before putting him on the air? I'm guessing they did, and they didn't care.

Now they are just trying to save face because other people figured out that the guy was a fraud.

Christopher Gordon wrote:Can't stand the show...though I've found myself hypnotized by it a late night or three. Oh! The (non) suspense of it all!

I enjoyed the episode with the guys from Moto helping to feed the magicians, since that's probably about as close as I'll ever get to Moto. It was to find out how those neat, unusual courses get made, especially with the help of Neil Patrick Harris (why was that again?)

But I agree with you, the show was so arrogant. Dinner is impossible? Really? So I guess you're just going to let a few hundred customers go hungry or eat spaghettios instead of this gourmet meal? Pass. I prefer the actual suspense of Ace of Cakes or Challenge, especially when the chefs have to move their centerpiece to a table 6 feet away without breakage.

Personally, I thought it was one of the better shows on the Food Network in that it showed some of the crazy things that can happen when you are catering events using someone else's kichens.

The show reminds me of one of the first catering events that I ever handled in my career, the opening of a new hospital. Someone placed Baked Alaska on the menu. You needed 800 orders and had broiler space for perhaps 20 at a time. Thank heavens the contruction guys had a few blowtorches lying around.

So he wasn't given a castle by the queen?

Pie Lady wrote:

Christopher Gordon wrote:Can't stand the show...though I've found myself hypnotized by it a late night or three. Oh! The (non) suspense of it all!

I enjoyed the episode with the guys from Moto helping to feed the magicians, since that's probably about as close as I'll ever get to Moto. It was to find out how those neat, unusual courses get made, especially with the help of Neil Patrick Harris (why was that again?)

But I agree with you, the show was so arrogant. Dinner is impossible? Really? So I guess you're just going to let a few hundred customers go hungry or eat spaghettios instead of this gourmet meal? Pass. I prefer the actual suspense of Ace of Cakes or Challenge, especially when the chefs have to move their centerpiece to a table 6 feet away without breakage.

I'd totally watch that one

I bet Neil Patrick Harris was involved because he's known for his collecting of magician lore/tricks.

This is the second time they've been embarassed by someone lying on their résumé (recall the last Next Food Network Star). Maybe they'll start paying attention now.

There's quite a bit more to this story than mere resume-fudging. Sounds more like a con man to me:

"Sir" Robert's got a bit more explaining to do, I'm afraid...

In an era when some people are famous simply for being famous, I guess this sort of thing should not really be unexpected. I do think the Food Network should have checked a bit of it -- but it is not the first time in revent history when a really big lie made someone temporarily famous. Irvine and Irving only differ by one letter, and as Irving (Clifford) pointed out, the more he lied, the more people believed him.

And I'm sorry it's not true. I only see cable TV when I visit my mom, but I had thought this show at least was rather fun -- though I don't think I could stand a steady diet of it. And he didn't always succeed -- the one at the CIA did prove impossible.

Since most of recent history's other impostors have ended up being featured in major motion pictures (The Great Impostor with Tony Curtis, Catch Me If you Can with what's his name from Titanic, and the Clifford Irving one with Richard Gere), perhaps we can look forward to a film-length bio of Robert Irvine in the not-too-distant future.

(And to clarify -- this doesn't mean I approve. I don't. I'm just not surprised anymore.)

I always found the show slightly dissapointing. I saw an episode of one of Paula Deen's show where he crossed over on there and was simply awful. With the attitude he seems to give off on his own show, I'm not surprised to know he falsified chunks of his resume. I think that there was a lengthy piece on NPR about this with Wendy LaTorre who invested in his restaurants in Florida ( aptly named Ooze and Schmmze).

I don't even know if they were all entirely false, aside from being a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, but they were heftily padded to make him look more experienced than what he really is/was.

And Ooze and Schmooze as names for restaurants; they're sadly reminiscent of something a late-80's celebrity culture satirist would offer in "literary" form. Talk about retro.

One of the things that I enjoy about food network shows is seeing the overinflated egos of some of their celebrities being burst. In that regard, I enjoyed this show somewhat.

Whoever thought of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" must have been seeking an opportunity to market a show to folks like me who like nothing better than seeing that arrogant prick get consistently beaten in a competition by food professionals with much less of a pedigree than his.

YourPalWill wrote:Whoever thought of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" must have been seeking an opportunity to market a show to folks like me who like nothing better than seeing that arrogant prick get consistently beaten in a competition by food professionals with much less of a pedigree than his.

He might be arrogant, but he's a pretty fine chef.

grillin & chillin with bobby flay and jack mcdavid was a pretty good show.

YourPalWill wrote:Whoever thought of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" must have been seeking an opportunity to market a show to folks like me who like nothing better than seeing that arrogant prick get consistently beaten in a competition by food professionals with much less of a pedigree than his.

And folks like me, too! I actually thought the premise of Dinner Impossible looked like it could be entertaining/interesting but I just could tolerate it due to Irvine's personality. I'd be glad to see it with someone else in it.

I dunno. I kind of had a problem with the whole premise of the show - "catering is hard, especially when your groceries and staff don't come through." Knew that.

It's funny, but Irvine always reminded me of the Achy Breaky Heart video (did the happy crowd indicate we were supposed to know the guy with the mullet?) I'm completely unsurprised that he isn't who he said he was. The real issue is that a network with the moniker "Food" shouldn't be relying on personality and gimmicks; there's plenty to explore and discuss in that subject area - case in point: this forum.

YourPalWill wrote:One of the things that I enjoy about food network shows is seeing the overinflated egos of some of their celebrities being burst. In that regard, I enjoyed this show somewhat.

Whoever thought of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" must have been seeking an opportunity to market a show to folks like me who like nothing better than seeing that arrogant prick get consistently beaten in a competition by food professionals with much less of a pedigree than his.

Too funny!

It also annoyed me to no end that on the "Next Food Network Star" they kept putting different show names under Bobby Flay's name every time he appeared on screen. "Bobby Flay - Boy Meets Grill", "Bobby Flay- Iron Chef", etc. It seems so self-serving.

I started making up new show titles and shouting them out every time he came on screen "Bobby Flay - I Can Beat Your 5th Grader"

I wish FN would get it's act together with the fact-checking. First Jag, now Irvine...

Perhaps someone could unearth a horrible lie that Sandra Lee told and she could be removed next? That would be a happy turn of events.

Kim

jpschust wrote:

YourPalWill wrote:Whoever thought of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" must have been seeking an opportunity to market a show to folks like me who like nothing better than seeing that arrogant prick get consistently beaten in a competition by food professionals with much less of a pedigree than his.

He might be arrogant, but he's a pretty fine chef.

During my years in New York, I always enjoyed Mesa Grill. Even though it is 15 years past it's "place to be status", I still frequent it on my trips there. It certainly is not the place that it once was. The food there has become predictable and poorly prepared in recent visits.

I once had a friend who worked there, in the late 90s, who indicated that it had been years since Flay had been behind the range there and that he was mostly a "marketing face" for the restaurant recruited by, Jerry Kretchmer, the investor of MG for his poster boy looks rather than his cooking skill.

I remember when I read Flay's first big cookbook. I noted that in his forward, he didn't thank, or even acknowledge, his sous chefs or colleagues at Mesa in it. That includes a very talented pastry chef by the name of Wayne Brachman who developed most of the pastry and dessert recipes in that book.

I look at a guy like Emeril Lagasse, who obviously doesn't have the skill of Flay, but who has still managed to stay pretty grounded to the roots of his profession. Emeril is a lesson in respect and humility that is long overdue for Flay.

I look at a guy like Emeril Lagasse, who obviously doesn't have the skill of Flay

Excuse me? Why on Earth would you say that?

Kim3 wrote:Perhaps someone could unearth a horrible lie that Sandra Lee told and she could be removed next? That would be a happy turn of events.

Well, if the whole Le Cordon Bleu thing isn't doing it, I don't know that anything will. From the Semi-Homemade website:

Lee then attended the world's leading culinary art institute, Le Cordon Bleu. She learned how to apply her Semi-Homemade® philosophy and savvy shortcuts towards gourmet recipes so that every over-extended homemaker could create and savor delicious dishes at home in less time and at a fraction of the cost.

While this may be technically true, considering that what she actually did was sign up for a two week course and drop out before completing it, it's a little difficult to defend that claim. Unless I missed some more egregious claims, this doesn't strike me as significantly less egregious than Irvine's claims, but there's no way FN kills that cash cow.

sundevilpeg wrote:

I look at a guy like Emeril Lagasse, who obviously doesn't have the skill of Flay

Excuse me? Why on Earth would you say that?

Yeah, I'm there with you, Peg. I probably haven't had anything prepared by either of their hands, but while eating at Emeril's restaurants was a much better experience than I expected, eating at Flay's restaurants was a big letdown. Small sample, of course, but I think Emeril's a lot sharper than he lets on, and I think Iron Chef America has revealed that Flay has a pretty limited bag of tricks. It's like there's a great sameness to everything he prepares. Contrast with Batali, who I think has shown through ICA that he's got a helluva lot more to him than regional Italian.

Cynthia wrote:And I'm sorry it's not true. I only see cable TV when I visit my mom, but I had thought this show at least was rather fun -- though I don't think I could stand a steady diet of it. And he didn't always succeed -- the one at the CIA did prove impossible.

No kidding? So what did they do if they couldn't serve everybody what was ordered?