'Top Chef' Fans Accuse A Contestant Of Ripping Off His Former Employer's Recipe
Top Chef contestant Danny Garcia is coming under fire after he allegedly “stole” a Scallop Chou Farci recipe from his former employer, Victoria Blamey.
The Saga Hospitality Group executive chef was hit with serious backlash after sharing the episode-winning dish on his Instagram page earlier this week.
“This looks exactly like a dish @victoriablamey served at Mena in 2022,” one user commented on his post, referring to Blamey’s now-closed New York City restaurant Mena. “A dish, btw, that had the critics falling over backwards to get a seat there. This seems like a blatant ripoff. I mean, it looks literally exactly the same!”
“w**? This is a direct lift of @victoriablamey’s dish from her restaurant @menarestaurantnyc,” another user chimed in. “There is the difference between inspiration and straight up theft and this is the latter. What a boring, unoriginal and lazy way to completely diminish your own creative integrity as a chef so publicly.”
Others seconded that the recipe was “stolen from Victoria Blamey” and “Not your dish.”
While Victoria Blamey declined to comment for this story, she did post a statement of her own to Instagram Stories and re-shared numerous fan reactions to the controversy.
“This dish was created while I opened Mena by me between 2021-2022…to have someone copy the exact same dish and win Top Chef is not only a lack of moral and professionalism but a sad demonstration how this person has no creative guts of his own,” she wrote. “Surprise that @Bravotopchef doesn’t do their research better.”
Top Chef Recipe
Garcia served as her executive sous chef when she first opened Mena in 2022. Several Reddit users discussed the pair’s shared history, with some calling it a “chaotic” plagiarism of his former boss. Others said “if he gave his boss credit he wouldn’t be having this issue.”
Now the real question is whether Garcia’s actions were actually allowed. What are the rules of the show?
“Ok, honest question, is a chef replicating a dish from a menu of a [restaurant] he used to work at during a challenge not allowed? I feel this has been done before… but maybe it’s cause he didn’t mention it? Or maybe he did and they cut it?” one user asked in the Reddit thread.
While there isn’t a list of official Top Chef rules on the internet, what we do know is that copyright law regarding recipes in this country is tricky. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, a “mere listing of ingredients is not protected under copyright law.” Whether that’s the case for the television series remains to be seen.
Danny Garcia did not respond to Delish’s request for comment.