Stephanie March Claims Bobby Flay Used Her As The Taste-Tester For All His Dishes In Divorce Proceedings

The divorce between celebrity chef Bobby Flay and his soon to be ex-wife, Stephanie March, just keeps getting worse and worse. Amid the mudslinging and claims of infidelity, the “Law and Order: SVU” actress is now claiming that she’s responsible for Flay’s business success.

According to TMZ, March is hoping she can convince a judge that their prenuptial agreement can be thrown out considering she was so vital in the 50-year-old’s restaurant empire. The outlet, which allegedly obtained some court documents, reports March is claiming she was the taste-tester that all of Flay’s menu items had to pass through before they were ready for the public to consume. Flay allegedly said she had an “amazing palate” and relied on her to let him know if his recipes were good enough to eat or destined for the trash. In addition, she claims she was invaluable in picking out things like the design, ambiance and music of Flay’s restaurants. She specifically cites Flay’s NYC restaurants Bar Americain and Bolo as two of the successful businesses that the Food Network star couldn’t have created without her input.

Although March signed a prenup close to a decade ago, it states that she is only entitled to $5,000 per month as well as a $1 million lump buyout to move out of their New York home, which Flay retains. If she can prove that she was vital to Flay’s ability to make all of his money, she could convince a court that the prenup is simply too unfair to her to hold up.

“There are profound issues with the agreement that was signed at their wedding but we will deal with those in the court," March’s lawyer told Us Magazine. "I'm confident a court will consider the agreement to be unconscionable... Stephanie hopes people will respect her privacy and be sophisticated enough to read through what’s coming from the other side."

According to Page 6, the breakup allegedly began when the actress discovered that Flay was having an affair with his assistant, Elyse Tirrell, a singer and actress who worked as a hostess in one of his restaurants. However, Flay’s lawyers released a statement saying that these claims were not based in reality.

“We will continue to refrain from responding to the continued efforts by certain parties to spread rumors and innuendo. This specific allegation was in a letter sent from one attorney in this case to the other. It was written and then leaked specifically to try to insert this story into the press, and that’s unfortunate,” the statement to the press said. “Even more unfortunate is that all of this is being done in order to renegotiate a prenuptial agreement that was agreed to over a decade ago and never amended during the marriage.”’