Chef Irvine may not be real deal

Last June, Chef Robert Irvine of the Food Channel’s Dinner Impossible was in Pensacola for a special dinner at eat!. Around 100 people showed up and paid $175 a plate for the meal. We wrote about it (Mission Possible ).

Today the St. Pete Times reports Irvine has problems with his two St. Petersburg restaurants: Ooze and Schmooze . The newspaper has found several holes in the chef’s resume.

His Web page lists a B.S. degree in food and nutrition from the University of Leeds.

True? “That was a program set up through the Royal Navy,” Irvine said. Then he paused. “We don’t call it a bachelor’s of science.” Sarah Spiller, a press officer at the University of Leeds: “We cannot find any connection in our records between Robert and the university.”

Worked on the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Princess Diana? True? “I was at the school when that was happening,” he said. “They made the cake at the school where I was.”

What about knighthood? Jenn Stebbing, press officer at Buckingham Palace: “He is not a KCVO Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and he wasn’t given a castle by the queen of England.”

I love the St. Pete Times.

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