For a US television audience, he had all the credentials to be a successful celebrity chef. Robert Irvine was a Briton, apparently with royal connections, a knighthood and experience that included cooking for four US presidents. His show Dinner: Impossible quickly became a favorite on the cable channel Food Network.
On Sunday, however, Irvine's popularity was deflating as fast as an undercooked souffle after he confessed to telling tall tales about his past; the channel announced it would not be renewing his contract, saying it had discovered "embellishments and inaccuracies" in his resume.
The 42-year-old, raised in Salisbury in southwest England, is not, it turns out, Sir Robert. Buckingham Palace confirmed yesterday that he had not been made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order as he had claimed. Nor was he given a castle by the Queen.
Irvine said these claims slipped out because of social pressure.
"When I first came down there and I met people with all this money, it was like trying to keep up with the Joneses. I was sitting in a bar one night and that came out. It was stupid," Irvine told the St Petersburg Times in Florida.
His claim to have helped make side panels for Charles and Diana's wedding cake also appeared to be cooked up.
"He most certainly was not involved with me in making or baking the cake," said Dave Avery, its creator.
Irvine also told the St Petersburg Times he had trained military cooks at the White House. In Irvine's cookbook-cum-autobiography, entitled Mission: Cook!, he writes of spending 16 weekends there training chefs, servers and staff. He also claims he cooked as a guest chef for both US President George W. Bush and his father, and for former US president Ronald Reagan's birthday on the royal yacht Britannia. But Walter Scheib, the White House executive chef from 1994 to 2005, said Irvine had no connection to US presidents during his time there, but was rather working in the West Wing's navy mess facility.
Asked if he served presidents and heads of state, Irvine, who has lived with his wife Karen in Absecon, New Jersey, for more than 10 years, said he could not talk about it "because it's the White House."
In his book, Irvine recounts growing up in Wiltshire with his father, a former professional soccer player from Belfast, who made his living as a painter and decorator, and mother Patricia, who worked in a wallpaper shop.
His "epiphany" came after joining the sea cadets and ending up in the kitchens on the SS Uganda, a cruise ship converted for a "school to work" program. At 15, by Irvine's account, he joined the Royal Navy. It was there he was "discovered by Prince Charles" and sent to work on Britannia.
He claimed he had worked in Buckingham Palace and as part of Charles and Diana's traveling entourage during a 10-year stint as chef to the royal household. Clarence House, the official residence of the Prince of Wales, was unable to validate those claims on Sunday night.
The Food Network could not be reached for comment. However, its president, Brooke Johnson, has said that old shows and a series in production would continue to air but Irvine's contract would not be renewed for future seasons.
"We rely on the trust that our viewers have in the accuracy of the information we present, and Robert challenged that trust," Johnson said. "We appreciate Robert's remorse about his actions, and we can revisit this decision at the end of the production cycle, but for now we will be looking for a replacement host."
In a statement released by the Food Network, Irvine said: "I was wrong to exaggerate in statements related to my experiences regarding the royal family. I am proud of my work while serving in the Royal Navy and on board the royal yacht Britannia, also as part of the guest chef program in the White House with the United States Navy, in addition to my culinary accomplishments. I should have stood on those accomplishments alone, without embellishment ... I am truly sorry for the errors in my judgment."
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