Television Chef Cooked Up False CV

A BRITISH TV chef has been sacked by an American cable channel after bosses discovered he had lied on his star-studded CV.

Robert Irvine`s show Dinner: Impossible was one of the Food Network`s top-rated shows - not least because of its presenter`s `royal connections`.

The 42-year-old from Wiltshire not only claimed to be a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, but his CV also boasted of cooking for four US presidents including Bill Clinton and George Bush.

Irvine also claimed to have helped out with Prince Charles and Lady Diana`s wedding cake and claimed the Queen had given him a castle.

Bosses at the station announced over the weekend they would not be renewing his contract after discovering "embellishments and inaccuracies" in his resume.

Irvine claims he was pressured into the lies in an effort to impress people.

He told the St Petersburg Times in Florida: "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."

His embarrassment will be all the more acute given that most of the lies are contained within his cookbook-cum-autobiography Mission:Cook!

In it the chef tells of his experiences cooking as a guest chef for Ronald Reagan`s birthday on the royal yacht Britannia and how he worked in Buckingham Palace and as part of Charles and Diana`s travelling entourage during a decade-long stint as chef to the royal household.

However, neither the White House nor Clarence House was prepared to give any credence those claims.