If you're like me, you watch Food Network on a daily basis. I trust their word like it's from the Lord himself, and you'll be hard pressed to convince me otherwise.
However, even though it seems like a pretty chill network, there have been some behind-the-scenes issues that we didn't really hear about. Between back-stabbing and down right insults, some stars of the Food Network seem better made for the Feud Network.
1. Bobby Flay vs Giada De Laurentiis
Bobby and Giada are best friends now, but it wasn't always this way!
In 2006, the duo paired up to compete on Iron Chef against Rachel Ray and Mario Batali. According to Giada, she didn't speak to Bobby for eight months after the competition.
We lost and he thought it was funny. He didn't think it was any big deal that we lost. I did not talk to him for eight months"š eight months! I did not. Nothing. Silence.I thought, you know, I took this very seriously. It was a very big show, especially at that time, and I've cooked, I've gone to culinary school, I worked on my own dish all by myself and I felt like he sort of half-assed it.
It was just TV [to him]. I took it very seriously. I think Rachael took it very seriously, and I was really disappointed.He didn't say, "˜Hey I'm sorry that we lost,' or "˜Hey, you know we'll do it again,'" she said. "Nothing. He's just like walked away and I thought, you're a jerk and I'm never"”I never want to be around you again. Now of course we're best buddies and we hang out but...
Now they're friends, but that's a long time to not speak to someone!
2. Rachael Ray vs Emeril Lagasse
Rachael may be the queen of 30 minute meals, but Emeril is the king of trash talk! When she first joined the network, Emeril wasn't sure Rachael was the right choice.
"[She] doesn't know anything about food. I would not put her on," he said.
It's not clear what changed Emeril's mind, but something clearly did. He's now an occasional co-host on The Rachael Ray Show, and the pair seem to get along just fine!
3. Martha Stewart vs Ina Garten
I guess in Martha's world, there can only be one successful woman chef...and it's her. When Ina was first starting out, she tried to sell her show The Barefoot Contessa to Martha Stewart Living, and even shot some pilot episodes.
However, Martha was having none of it. She hated the idea of another woman on her network.
"I don't want to be representing Ina," Stewart declared to her team, according to a source. "I don't want this shown. I want the tapes of this whole series destroyed."
Ina is clearly doing fine for herself now, after the show was picked up by the Food Network.
4. Martha Stewart vs Gwyneth Paltrow
Okay, so Gwyneth may not be a Food Network star, but she did start her own brand, Goop, which includes a lot of homemaking tips similar to Martha. When Martha found out, she wasn't impressed.
"She just needs to be quiet," Martha said. "She's a movie star. If she were confident in her acting, she wouldn't be trying to be Martha Stewart."
I guess you could argue that if Martha was confident in her own skills, she wouldn't care about a movie star and her brand.
5. Martha Stewart vs Rachael Ray
Jeez, Martha. Relax.
After getting out of jail in 2009, Martha decided to go after Rachael and her new cookbook.
"Well, to me, she professed that she cannot bake," she said. "She just did a new cookbook which is just a re-edit of a lot of her old recipes. And that's not good enough for me."
She proceeded to call the Food Network host an entertainer rather than a chef, but Rachael wasn't about to engage in a war of words.
"Why would it make me mad? Her skill set is far beyond mine," she said. "That's simply the reality of it."
Martha later apologized for her comments.
6. Martha Stewart vs Eric Ober
Eric Ober was the president of the Food Network when they were first starting out and needed content. He negotiated with Martha Stewart Living to get old episodes of Martha's show, which would pay her millions of dollars.
When she came in to sign the contract, Martha didn't even look at anyone or shake their hands. She signed her papers and left.
Ober then told his lawyer, "The only other thing I want in this agreement is I don't want to have to see that woman again for the life of this contract."
7. Sandra Lee's Kwanzaa Cake
This one is more of a scandal than a feud, but it's safe to say it put a wedge between Sandra and her assistant.
Sandra has been a controversial figure in the food world for a while, because, as Anthony Bourdain puts it, "she seems to suggest that you can make good food easily, in a matter of minutes, using cheese whiz and chopped up Pringles and packaged chili mix."
However, her decision to make a Kwanzaa cake is what sent people over the edge. She used store-bought angel food cake, apple pie filling, corn nuts, popcorn, pumpkin seeds, and vanilla frosting.
Lee's assistant, Denise Vivaldo, said, "I feel bad as a professional cook that I was involved in that abortion."
8. Guy Fieri vs Anthony Bourdain
Guy is known for his outrageous antics, but apparently that's not cool with Anthony. When Guy's American Kitchen & Bar opened in Manhattan, Anthony said it "single-handedly turned the neighborhood into the Ed Hardy district."
Guy was asked about the comments, but tried to take the high road.
"I don't like him making fun of people, and I don't like him talking s**t. And he's never talked shit to my face. I know he's definitely gotta have issues, "˜cos the average person doesn't behave that way."
Anthony and Guy settled their feud, with Anthony saying Guy was "low-hanging fruit."
9. Anthony Bourdain vs Paula Deen
Bourdain has always been open about his disdain (Bourdain Disdain would be a great TV show) towards Paula.
"The worst, most dangerous person to America is clearly Paula Deen," he said in 2011. "She revels in unholy connections with evil corporations and she's proud of the fact that her food is f***ing bad for you. Plus, her food sucks."
When it came out in 2012 that Paula had type 2 diabetes, she faced a lot of backlash for not only hiding her diagnosis, but also for still promoting her extremely unhealthy recipes packed with butter.
Anthony was at a food festival soon after, and a fan asked how his smoking cigarettes on his show was similar to Paula using excessive amounts of butter.
"You're right. I did smoke cigarettes for a lot of years on my show. But I wasn't selling you motherf****** cigarettes!" Bourdain said to the crowd. "And when I found a spot on my motherf****** lung, I didn't wait three years to sell you the patch!"
He commented on a different occasion as well.
"When your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut, and you've been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you've got Type 2 Diabetes... It's in bad taste if nothing else."
Paula heard about these comments, and fired back herself.
"I don't think he has the ability to make or break my career. Especially when he's going around eating unwashed anuses of wildebeests."
When you use the phrase "eating unwashed anuses of wildebeests," you win your argument.
