This chef has the recipe for romantic disaster.
A Washington, D.C.-based chef, whose vegan burger recipe netted a big investment from Mark Cuban on “Shark Tank,” is a lying deadbeat, his former wife claims in court papers.
Jumoke B. Jackson, 44, a caterer and private chef, created the recipe behind the Legendary Burger, landing on the ABC show with his two partners earlier this year, and getting a $300,000 buy-in from Cuban.
Their company, Everything Legendary, did big business after the show, Jackson wrote on Facebook, quickly pulling in $250,000.
But the windfall apparently hasn’t prompted him to repay ex-wife Renee E. Warren, who claims in a Manhattan Supreme Court filing he owes her more than $40,000 for various indiscretions, including wiping out their joint account, using her credit card without permission, and letting her foot the $10,000 bill for their 2016 annulment.
The man who goes by the moniker “Mr. Foodtastic,” was anything but fantastic during his brief marriage to Warren, according to court papers.
Jackson and Warren married in August 2011, and the marriage ended on the basis of “cruel and inhuman treatment,” according to legal papers she filed against Jackson, who she says has paid her just $275.
“I misrepresented myself from early on, telling [her] I owned the townhouse I lived in in Washington, D.C. and hiding the fact that I had a teenage son, despite Plaintiff’s many expressions of love of children and her desires to have her own family,” Jackson confessed in court papers.
He was actually renting the townhouse, footing the bill while his mom and sister lived there for free, Jackson admitted.
Jackson confirmed he misled Warren, letting her think that he “intended to live with [her] as husband and wife, in a faithful committed relationship,” but in reality was traveling to Washington D.C. on weekends to cheat on her with a girlfriend.
Jackson told Warren the engagement ring he gave her “was a diamond of great value” — but it was really worth $14.95, and paid for with an ex-girlfriend’s credit card, according to the filing.
She tied the knot with him even though she discovered weeks before their wedding that he’d racked up $1,500 in charges on her credit card without her knowledge, and had installed tracking software on her Blackberry — which cost her $9,000 to remove, according to legal papers.
But their vows didn’t change Jackson’s behavior: just five months after they wed, he enrolled her in a class at her favorite pottery studio as a birthday present, paying for it with the same ex’s credit card — leaving Warren mortified when the studio called to tell her the charge had been disputed.
Warren claims Jackson reneged on his pledge to pay what he owes her, and is suing him in Manhattan Supreme Court to recoup the debt. Jackson didn’t respond to messages.