Warning: The next publish incorporates allegations of sexual assault and instances of home violence and little one abuse.
You wouldn’t anticipate a cable community as seemingly innocuous as Meals Community to be beset by scandal. However lots of its stars have landed in scorching water — a rolling boil, not only a low simmer.
Under, discover a timeline of our picks for Meals Community’s greatest controversies.
2010: Juan-Carlos Cruz pleads no contest to homicide for rent
Juan-Carlos Cruz, who hosted Calorie Commando on Meals Community, pleaded no contest in October 2010 to prices of soliciting two homeless males to kill his spouse Jennifer Campbell, and he was sentenced that December to 9 years in a California jail, per CNN. Sources advised CNN that Campbell was overwhelmed by fertility points and should have wished to finish her life however believed suicide was a sin.
The community issued a press release on the time, saying Cruz “[had] not been underneath contract or related to Meals Community for quite a lot of years.”
2011: Ina Garten declines Make-a-Want request twice
In March 2011, Barefoot Contessa host Ina Garten received the nickname “Heartless Contessa” after followers discovered she had twice denied 6-year-old most cancers affected person Enzo Pereda’s Make-a-Want request to fulfill her.
Amid fan outcry, a spokesperson for Garten mentioned the Meals Community star was not in a position to accommodate the “roughly 100 requests [Garten received] a month to assist charitable causes,” per ABC Information. Garten ultimately relented and invited Enzo to the set of her present, however the Pereda household declined the invitation.
2013: Paula Deen admits to utilizing a racial epithet
Meals Community fired Paula Deen in June 2013 after she revealed in a deposition for a sexual and racial discrimination lawsuit that she had “in fact” used the N-word up to now. The deposition additionally uncovered that Deen had wished to plan a “true southern plantation-style wedding ceremony” for her brother, with Black servers, per NBC Information.
In a video assertion on the time, Deen apologized for the “inappropriate, hurtful language” which she known as “completely, completely unacceptable.” Meals Community, in the meantime, launched a press release saying it could not renew Deen’s contract when it ended that month, in line with the Los Angeles Occasions.
2017: The Pioneer Girl options an offensive alternate about “Asian scorching wings”
In March 2017, the weblog Thick Dumpling Pores and skin highlighted a Season 2 episode of Meals Community’s The Pioneer Girl through which star Ree Drummond pranks a bunch of males by presenting them with “Asian scorching wings” as a substitute of buffalo wings.
“The place are the true wings?” one man responded.
“I don’t belief ’em,” mentioned one other.
With amusing, Drummond revealed a plate of buffalo wings. “I’m simply kidding, guys,” she mentioned. “I wouldn’t try this to you.”
Declaring that Meals Community wanted higher Asian illustration, the Thick Dumpling Pores and skin bloggers wrote, “Why should we watch non-Asian cooks who can’t pronounce ’sriracha’ and don’t have a chopstick drawer present us make our personal dishes? And the way come, after they do, we’ve to observe as their total household mocks it — like on this episode of The Pioneer Girl?”
2017: Mario Batali faces a number of sexual misconduct allegations
In December 2017, Eater reported that 4 girls had alleged that superstar chef Mario Batali had touched them inappropriately, main Meals Community to cancel plans to revive Batali’s TV present Molto Mario.
The chef mentioned in a press release to Eater on the time that the habits described within the allegations matched methods through which he had acted. “That habits was incorrect and there are not any excuses,” he mentioned. “I take full duty and am deeply sorry for any ache, humiliation, or discomfort I’ve triggered to my friends, workers, clients, pals, and household.”
By January 2019, the New York Police Division closed three investigations into sexual assault allegations towards Batali after not discovering sufficient proof to make an arrest, per The New York Occasions. In Might 2022, a Boston Municipal Courtroom choose discovered Batali not responsible of indecent assault and battery in a separate case, because the Occasions reported. And that August, Batali settled lawsuits from two girls who alleged he had sexually assaulted them, together with the girl whose claims had been the topic of the Might trial, per Reuters.
2018: Josh Denny drops racial epithets
Josh Denny, host of Meals Community’s Ginormous Meals, angered Twitter customers in Might 2018 by writing, “‘Straight white male’ has change into this century’s N-word.”
Then Twitter customers uncovered years-old tweets through which Denny had used the total epithet and made disparaging remarks about Asian girls.
In an interview in regards to the controversy on Van Lathan’s podcast, Denny uttered the epithet a number of extra instances, ignoring Lathan’s request for him to cease, in line with the Related Press.
Denny additionally stoked on-line ire three years later when he used a slur for ladies when discussing Texas’ abortion regulation, per Deadline. “For these asking: Our working relationship with Josh Denny ended years in the past and we eliminated all episodes he hosted at the moment,” Meals Community tweeted on the time. “His views don’t replicate our firm values and we remorse giving him a platform.”
2018: Andrew Zimmern makes controversial feedback about Chinese language eating places
In an interview with Quick Firm shared on-line in November 2018, Weird Meals host Andrew Zimmern mentioned that by opening a Chinese language restaurant in Minnesota, he was “saving the souls of all of the individuals from having to dine at these horses**t eating places masquerading as Chinese language meals which are within the Midwest.”
Zimmern’s feedback sparked outrage. “The Midwest’s ‘horses**t eating places are what paved the way in which for Zimmern’s enterprise and extra broadly, Chinese language delicacies in America,” wrote The Washington Publish contributor Ruth Tam.
On Twitter person wrote, per NBC Information, “So Andrew Zimmern principally known as into query a Chinese language man’s Chinese language-ness and authority to promote Chinese language meals — whereas selling his personal authority to promote Chinese language meals as a woke white man.”
Zimmern apologized on Fb, saying, “I’m utterly answerable for what I mentioned, and I wish to apologize to anybody who was offended or harm by these sound bites.”
2020: Chad Barrett is accused of home violence
Man’s Grocery Video games contestant Chad Barrett was taken off Meals Community’s schedule in June 2020 after seven girls accused him of violence towards him forward of his trial on different home abuse prices, per Deadline.
“Once we learn the native information reviews in regards to the present allegations towards this contestant, we pulled each episodes that he appeared, so no re-airs could possibly be scheduled,” a community spokesperson mentioned in a press release on the time.
That December, Barrett was sentenced to 60 days of jail time, 15 months non-reporting probation, 40 hours of neighborhood service and a $500 effective after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor second offense of home violence, in line with the Detroit Free Press.
2022: Ariel Robinson convicted of murdering a foster little one
Ariel Robinson, a winner of Meals Community’s Worst Cooks in America, was convicted in Might 2022 of murder by little one abuse. A jury in Greenville County, South Carolina, discovered Robinson responsible within the beating loss of life of her 3-year-old foster daughter, per Folks.
Robinson was sentenced to life in jail for the crime. Her husband, Jerry, was sentenced to twenty years in jail after pleading responsible to murder by little one abuse/aiding and abetting, in line with Greenville Information.
2024: Darnell Ferguson indicted on strangulation and assault prices
In February 2024, SuperChef Grudge Match host Darnell Ferguson was indicted for first-degree housebreaking, first-degree strangulation, fourth-degree assault, third-degree terroristic threatening, menacing, and prison mischief, following an alleged January 2 incident involving spouse Tatahda Ferguson, per WDRB. He pleaded not responsible.
That April, Tatahda mentioned the police had twisted her phrases. “Darnell is an effective man!” she added in a information launch despatched by her lawyer. “I’ve by no means felt unsafe or threatened by him, and he has at all times been an unbelievable father to our kids. It hurts my coronary heart the way in which he’s being vilified. I’m coming ahead to attempt to do what’s proper to clear his title.”
The trial, nevertheless, remains to be slated to start in Might 2025. At a July 2024 courtroom listening to for the case, Darnell mentioned, “One factor for positive is that I’m who I say I’m. And I’ve been like that. Everybody who is aware of me is aware of that, and it’ll be confirmed in courtroom in entrance of 12 individuals if it must be.”
In case you or somebody you understand is the sufferer of sexual assault, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest Nationwide Community’s Nationwide Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). In case you or a cherished one are in speedy hazard, name 911.
In case you or somebody you understand is the sufferer of home abuse, contact the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
In case you or somebody you understand is the sufferer of kid abuse, contact the Childhelp Nationwide Youngster Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Youngster (1-800-422-4453). In case you or a cherished one are in speedy hazard, name 911.