first launched in the u.s. in 1993 the
food network's path to success hasn't
always been so easy in fact the foodie
favorite has weathered quite a few
scandals and some of the shocking
situations have rocked the network and
it's devoted fans to their very core
here are some of the biggest scandals
the food network has ever faced
ina Gardens pass Ina Garten host of Food
Network's Barefoot Contessa revealed her
not-so-nice side in 2011 when Enzo
parada a six year old battling leukemia
requested to meet her through the
make-a-wish program and she denied him
due to her busy schedule twice his
family wrote about the incident in a
now-defunct blog which then got the
media's attention Garten did damage
control inviting parada onto her show
but the bharatas passed on garton's
offer saying that young Enzo would
instead fulfill his wish of swimming
with dolphins Mario Batali's skimmed
tips chef mario batali came under fire
in 2010 when a class-action lawsuit was
filed against him on behalf of some of
his employees the suit represented 117
people who worked for Batali in his
restaurants alleging that Batali
illegally skimmed tips keeping four to
five percent of the money that should
have gone to his servers Batali finally
agreed to a settlement in 2012 paying
five point two five million to the
employees named in the lawsuit and any
of the employees who lost tips as a
result of Batali's tip skimming from
July 2004 to February 2012 but Batali
was back in the news in 2017 when four
women accused him of inappropriate
touching
but Tolley didn't deny the allegations
which spanned 20 years he said in a
statement to eater that behavior was
wrong and there are no excuses I take
full responsibility and am deeply sorry
for any pain humiliation or discomfort I
have caused to my peers employees
customers friends and family Batali
watered down a second apology in an
e-mailed newsletter where he added a
link to his pizza dough cinnamon rolls
which are now known online by a few
other names including apology rolls
either way Batali's career took a
nosedive ABC fired him as co-host of the
chew and Food Network announced they
would no longer be producing his show
molto Mario which they had previously
planned to revive Anne Burrell's
trash-talk in 2009 chef Anne Burrell was
sued for discriminating against female
employees at centro vino TECA
a West Village restaurant where she was
formerly a chef according to the lawsuit
Burrell was accused of calling the
all-female plaintiffs a string of
derogatory names she also reportedly
made remarks about their cleavage and is
said to have openly commented on their
private lives when the woman complained
Burrell allegedly had them fired
although an undisclosed settlement was
reached in that case Burrell has not
commented on the validity of the
accusations Robert Irvine's fake resume
chef Robert Irvine shot to fame as the
host of Food Network's dinner impossible
his resume boasted a British knighthood
cooking for four former US presidents
and a friendship with Prince Charles as
well as a hand in creating his wedding
cake when he Wed Princess Diana but it
all turned out to be too good to be true
when it was revealed in 2008 that
Irvine's resume was substantially padded
Irvine left dinner impossible in
disgrace the show continued to air with
Michael Symon at the helm but after
Irvine apologized Food Network
eventually welcomed him back Nigella
Lawson's drug abuse chef Nigella
Lawson's good girl image took a hit in
2013 when the multi-millionaire and her
ex-husband Charles Saatchi accused their
former assistants francesca and
Elisabetta Grillo of defrauding the
couple of hundreds of thousands of
pounds the Grillo sisters contested the
charges claiming that they were allowed
to spend the couple's funds by Lawson on
the condition that they didn't reveal
her drug use to Saachi the gorillas
claimed that Lawson used cocaine daily
and had abused prescription drugs for
years during the trial Lawson told the
court I have never been a drug addict
I've never been a habitual user there
are two times in my life when I have
used cocaine the Grillo sisters were
acquitted of the charges Guy Fieri's
homophobic remarks Guy Fieri came under
scrutiny in 2011 when some incredibly
offensive remarks of his were revealed
to the press according to David Page the
creator and former producer of diners
drive-ins and dives
one of the restaurants they visited for
the show was run by two men who Fieri
had determined were life partners Page
said fee Eddie called him and said you
can't send me to talk to gay people
without warning those people weird me
out page added that from that time
forward producers were told to make a
note if they picked up any quote
indications of homosexuality during the
pre-interview process
read Drummond's racist recipe on the
second season of the Pioneer Woman the
show star REE Drummond made a racist
joke that offended many of your viewers
on the show Drummond made Asian hot
wings for her family and friends which
were met with disgusted faces Drummond
then joked and replaced the hot wings
with American buffalo wings the blog
thick dumpling skin called Drummond and
the Food Network out writing why must we
watch non-asian cooks show us how to
make our own dishes and how come when
they do we have to watch as their entire
family mocks it like in this episode of
the Pioneer Woman eater called for Food
Network to stop airing the episode in
2017 Paula Deen's racial slur scandal
broke out in 2013 after Paula Deen
admitted to having used the n-word the
racist language came to light as part of
a lawsuit filed by former employee of a
restaurant co-owned by Deen as her
Empire quickly turned to dust she
pleaded with fans and co-workers beg for
your forgiveness but Dean's apology
might have been more convincing if her
company hadn't released a statement
claiming that Deen used the slur in a
different era attempting to justify
Dean's language saying she was born 60
years ago when America's South had
schools that were segregated different
bathrooms different restaurants and
Americans wrote in different parts of
the bus this is not today five years
after her half-baked apology tour Dean
has returned to TV on a different
network with her new cooking show
positively Paula thanks for watching
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