Food

Postcards from the Edge

Chef Implausible

Posted on 04 March 2008 by Susan Engle

Chef Robert Irvine isn’t going to be able to cook his way out of this one.

Two years ago, the showy British chef showed up on Food Network as the frontman for “Dinner Impossible.” The intro ran down his impressive background — cooking for the British royal family and serving as a White House chef, among others. He was even said to be have been knighted by the queen. He was given “missions,” which involved turning out an impressive menu of food in eight hours or less, under sometimes “impossible” conditions.

Turns out, though, Irvine’s a bragging, boastful liar. He was outed in an extensive story Feb. 17 in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

The knighthood?

Buckingham Palace says, “He is not a KCVO Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and he wasn’t given a castle by the queen of England.”

What about the White House?

Walter Scheib, White House executive chef from 1994to 2005 says, “Irvine’s ONLY connection with the White House is through the Navy Mess facility in the West Wing … never in the period from 4/4/94 until 2/4/05 did he have ANYTHING to do with the preparation, planning, or service of any State Dinner or any other White House Executive Residence food function, public or private.”

He also claimed to own a castle in Scotland (not), have a B.S. from the University of Leeds (not), that he worked on the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Princess Diana (not), and says he has a five-star diamond award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences. The academy is actually an apartment in New York City and anyone can buy a diamond or any other kind of award from it.

Lies, lies, lies. What’s amazing is that Food Network was apparently as ignorant as everyone else about Irvine’s background. They took him at face value and apparently did nothing to check to see if the background of their newest star was anywhere close to what they were told.

Food TV is not renewing “Dinner Impossible,” but will run out the remainder of this season. At least, that’s what they say now. I doubt the dust has settled around this brouhaha. The tabloids haven’t gotten into this fray yet. I fully expect Food TV to ax “Dinner Impossible” completely in the next month.

All in all, Chef Robert ought to have done more reading and less cooking. Mark Twain had some advice for situations like this: “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”