Happy Birthday, Cat Cora! 8 Celebrity Chef Arrests That Were Worse Than Your DUI
TMZ for alerting us to the news that Cat Cora was recently arrested for a DUI , as well as posting ridiculous amounts of content surrounding the event. But really, in the grand scheme of things, Cat Cora’s incident is nothing compared to the more ridiculous, scandalous, and even heinous celebrity chef arrests in the world. While chefs are a bit of a crazy bunch, very, very few of them try to murder their wives using homeless men. And that’s what we’re concerned with, at the end of the day — non-murdered spouses.
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1. Morgan Wilson
Remember this d-bag from Top Chef: Just Desserts Season One? Did you want to punch him through the television screen for thumping his straight-man chest and denigrating everyone in the house, from sweet, alabaster-carved Yigit Pura to Eric "That Baker Guy" Wolitsky? Welp, last year he got indicted shortly after being a finalist on TCJD's first season...for viewing and spreading child pornography online. Oh gross. He faces up to ten years in prison if found guilty.
(Yigit would never have child pornography. Just sayin.)
2. Antony Worrell Thompson
This British celebrity chef, known for his multiple television appearances and a strained, insolvent restaurant empire, was caught earlier this year committing the most chef-ly of crimes: shoplifting bottles of wine and blocks of cheese from a Tesco's. But unlike most shoplifters, Thompson was 60 -- and, according to his friends, had a very, very awful life story which led him to utter recklessness (you'd have to be, to casually admit in an interview that you had a love child "from a bonk" whom you'd never met.)
In a statement, Thompson acknowledged that he'd been"stupid and irresponsible," and promised to "seek the treatment that is clearly needed." It's...never too late to get started?
3. John Burton Race
Once upon a time, John Burton Race had a Michelin-starred restaurant, a fun reality show appearance on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! , and a record that had no DUI. Then, everything changed after he fathered a child with his mistress, leading to a multimillion-pound divorce that left him bankrupt. Shortly thereafter, cops caught him driving erratically early in the morning after a long day of work drinks.
Normally in a situation like this, one would not try to wrestle or punch the police officers trying to administer a breathalyzer . (Cat Cora, for instance, did nothing more harmful than call someone a nerd .)
But after he did, Race pled guilty and was fined £1,430, and banned from driving for 14 months.
4. Marcel Vigneron
Foamy Wolverine here was busted in 2008 for a DUI, caught while speeding down the Pacific Coast Highway near Laguna Beach. Included because it confirms our belief that Marcel looks intense and angry in all situations, not just when he's being arraigned.
5. Stephen Dean Corbett
A famous Louisville, KY restauranteur, Corbett was pulled over for swerving while eating pizza being tailed by police after they noticed him making a hand-to-hand transaction from his car in an area known for drug trafficking. He admitted immediately that he'd purchased Vicodin, mostly because he'd dealt with chronic pain for 15 years as a result of "two back surgeries, a cervical fusion and kidney cancer," as he said in a statement .
He also stated that he'd lent some Vikes to a friend suffering from stage 3 esophageal cancer and didn't realize that it was illegal. Which is why he bought some off the side of the road -- he was running out! We completely understand why he did this. It's like whenever we're out of toilet paper: we go to Duane Reade. He's our toilet paper supplier who lives in the alleyway behind our office. Easy transaction.
6. Beau MacMillan
The host of Worst Cooks In America received a traffic citation via one of those newfangled roadside cameras, but claimed that he never received his summons in the mail since he'd moved to a new house. These sorts of things lead to being arrested on an outstanding warrant , and photos like this! Everyone! Make sure you file a change of address form whenever you move. That's how you avoid getting your mugshot on the internet.
7. Juan Carlos Cruz
Everyone on this list (except for you, Morgan Wilson, you heinous ass) can feel somewhat better about their legal indiscretions after hearing the strange tale of Juan Carlos Cruz . A long time ago, he hosted a show on the Food Network called "Calorie Commando," where he taught people how to lose weight by cutting out unhealthy foods from their meals.
Years later in 2010, two homeless men told the Santa Monica police that Cruz had offered them $1000 to kill his 47-year-old wife. Well, not really $500, acording to TMZ: Cruz offered the men, named Big Dave and Little Dave, ten $100 bills torn in half , with one half as payment up front, and the other half once the deed was done. "What a cheap bastard," they probably thought, and told the police about the plan. In exchange for their cooperation, they got "two pizzas, a 12-pack of beer and a bottle of San Jose," as well as a hotel room, from the police. "I love 'em," declared one of the Daves.
Cruz was arrested and sentenced to prison for nine years.
8. BONUS: Gino D'Acampo
While in the process of winning I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!, Gino D'Acampo, who is sort of the British version of Fabio Viviani, had been kicked out of his camp in a form of death by exile. Starving, and with nothing but meager rations of rice and beans, he and his teammate Stuart Manning caught, killed and ate a poor innocent rat whose only crime was scurrying about the New Zealand jungle.
Which is apparently enough to get the New Zealand chapter of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to demand that you show up in court and face criminal charges of animal cruelty. " There is a code of conduct in New South Wales that dictates how animals can be used," said spokesman David Oshannessy . "The killing of a rat for a performance is not acceptable."
Thankfully, ITV revealed that the two had been given permission to eat the rat from the crew, and accepted the fairly small penalty, leaving D'Acampo free to hunt rats and turn them into performance art .
We have to give a shoutout to TMZ for alerting us to the news that Cat Cora was recently arrested for a DUI, as well as posting ridiculous amounts of content surrounding the event. But really, in the grand scheme of things, Cat Cora’s incident is nothing compared to the more ridiculous, scandalous, and even heinous celebrity chef arrests in the world. While chefs are a bit of a crazy bunch, very, very few of them try to murder their wives using homeless men. And that’s what we’re concerned with, at the end of the day — non-murdered spouses.
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