Man Fieri is going through authorized hassle as a former Meals Community actuality collection winner has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the celeb chef over a failed restaurant that launched off the again of the present.
In keeping with The Day by day Mail, Kevin Cooper, who gained the short-lived Meals Community collection Man’s Probability of a Lifetime in February 2022, is suing Fieri for not offering the financial help he was allegedly promised for successful the present.
The collection, which aired for just one season, noticed aspiring cooks competing in opposition to each other in a collection of culinary contests for the prospect to run their very own Hen Man institution, one in all Fieri’s manufacturers.
Cooper, a chef from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, gained the present. As a part of his winnings, he was allegedly purported to obtain a assured $100,000 wage for the primary yr along with a waived franchise charge and $10,000 put aside for any authorized bills. He additionally claimed he was promised help to construct out the house for the restaurant and operational prices that exceeded the primary yr’s income.
Whereas Cooper’s Hen Man franchise opened on the King of Prussia Mall outdoors Philadelphia in February 2024, it closed only a yr later in late February 2025. A cause for the closure hasn’t been supplied, however Philly Magazine reported Cooper filed a lawsuit in opposition to Fieri’s firm, Hen Man LLC and Earl Enterprises LLC.
Per The Day by day Mail, the lawsuit claims Cooper by no means acquired the assured $100,000 wage, regardless of requesting it on a number of events. He additionally alleges that he was by no means given the promised operational bills, which exceeded the shop’s income.
Cooper, who additionally appeared on Meals Community’s Cooks v Cons and Man’s Grocery Video games, is looking for the $100,000 wage and bills that he claims had been promised to him for successful the truth competitors collection.
On Sunday (June 29), Cooper shared a video on Instagram, the place he acknowledged he had been “quiet” on social media as of late. Whereas he didn’t deal with the lawsuit straight, the Philly-based chef stated, “There have been some moments the place I didn’t even wish to communicate my reality, as a result of the model of the God that was handed down by my ancestors wasn’t the model that I got here to know in my quiet house.”
He added, “So for a very long time I held again, as a result of I didn’t wish to change into simply one other black man pushing the blame as a result of I used to be achieved soiled… I ain’t mad, I ain’t offended, and I ain’t even making an attempt to make anyone look dangerous, man. I’m simply right here to let y’all know that I’m utterly free and now I’ve acquired one thing to say, so y’all keep tuned. Peace.”