Famous Food

Tom Arnold is half the man he used to be, dropping 90 pounds in 9 months -- but he tells TMZ, it wasn't easy ... he had to cut out sugar and bread from his diet and bust his ass exercising.

54-year-old Tom tells us his son Jax -- who was born in April -- is the inspiration for his weight loss. "My son is already cursed with an old dad, so he doesn't deserve to have a fat dad too."

According to Tom, the diet was a huge part, but he also did tons of circuit training, cardio, and took lots of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Muscle Pharm supplements.

Hasta la vista, belly.

Hours after retaining his championship belt and possibly ending Anderson Silva's career ... UFC Middleweight champ Chris Weidman continued his campaign of destruction -- by decimating a double bacon cheeseburger.

Weidman partied at Surrender nightclub -- washing down his burger with a cold Miller Lite.

UFC's other big winner Ronda Rousey also feasted in celebration ... she went with family and friends to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant at the MGM for her usual post fight chicken wings.

America!

They've got A LOT in common (killing poultry, homophobia) ... but the people at Chick-fil-A are adamant the company is NOT involved with a growing pro-Phil Robertson campaign called "Chick-Phil-A."

The Chick-Phil-A campaign is picking up steam on social media ... encouraging people to eat at Chick-fil-A restaurants on January 21st while wearing Duck Commander or camouflage gear to show their support for the "Duck Dynasty" star.

A Facebook page for the campaign says, "Stand for free speech. Sit for good food." So far, more than 40,000 people have already committed to participate

But despite the fact Chick-fil-A knows a little something about anti-gay marriage controversies, the restaurant says the event "is in no way sponsored by or affiliated with Chick-fil-A."

Chick-fil-A says Chick-Phil-A was created by an "independent group" ... though at this point, no group has come forward to take credit.

Cracker Barrel took such a ridiculous position by boycotting Duck Commander products with Phil Robertson's punim on it ... they had to give their employees a script to deal with pissed-off customers.

TMZ obtained a copy of a script Cracker Barrel created so its employees could justify the boycott. And this is funny ... the script is actually a modified version of how employees generally deal with unhappy shoppers. Seems to be a problem at Cracker Barrel.

The script was 86'd 24 hours after it was written ... when Cracker Barrel reversed its position because it realized it stood to lose customers and therefore lots of loot.

Apparently the company needs a new script, because angry customers are still calling about its position on Phil.

Cracker Barrel execs have cracked after just one day ... lifting their ban on Phil Robertson's merchandise ... and it's the ultimate hypocrisy.

A CB rep now says the company had no choice but to cave after "Duck Dynasty" fans blasted them via email, phone and social media.

Cracker Barrel decided to pull the products because it was so concerned about "equal treatment of all people" and "mutual respect." In other words, they felt Phil was loathsome.

But so much for principles when the almighty dollar gets in the way. Cracker Barrel now says, "You told us we made a mistake and you weren't shy about it ... you flat out told us we were wrong."

And this is precious ... They say, "We apologize for offending you."

So here's the upshot. On Saturday Cracker Barrel apparently felt Phil had offended gays and that's why they took a stand. But 24 hours later they realized a bigger problem than offending gays is offending customers who pay for CB stuff.

So now the CB rep took the position the company should have taken in the first place: "We respect all individuals' rights to express their beliefs."

How do CB execs move from office to office ... hard to do when you don't have a spine.

Cracker Barrel has become the first sponsor to cut bait with "Duck Dynasty" ... but not entirely.

The Southern-themed food chain reacted to Phil Robertson's anti-gay comments by removing "selected products which we were concerned might offend some of our guests" from their stores and restaurants.

We called a bunch of Cracker Barrel stores, and the managers told us the products that were removed were the ones that had Phil's face plastered on the packaging. Almost to a person, the managers added, "We still offer a wide variety of Duck Commander products," and then we heard a click.

C.B. offers this explanation ... "We operate within the ideals of fairness, mutual respect and equal treatment of all people. These ideals are the core of our corporate culture."

Steve Martin learned an important lesson about lasagna last night ... the dish can get racial.

The SNL alum was cracking grammar jokes on Twitter .. when someone asked, "is this how you spell lasonia?"

Steve's response ... "It depends. Are you in an African-American neighborhood or at an Italian restaurant."

Seconds later the 68-year old actor deleted the tweet and apologized. But the floodgates opened, the original tweet went viral and Martin atoned again: "I did apologize. But again, a second later I realized what an offensive thing I'd done ... In retrospect, bad joke."

A penne for his thoughts.

One of Justin Bieber's bodyguards roughed up a photog last night at an IHOP in Encino, CA ... and the pap has filed a battery report with cops ... according to law enforcement sources.

TMZ has learned ... the photog says he was trying to take pictures of Bieber in the pancake shop, but took a potty break, and that's where the alleged battery went down.

The photog says he was injured slightly.

Kanye hit up Baskin Robbins in West Hollywood Thursday (pictured above) donning his usual unhappy gaze ... but moments later, a true Christmas miracle occurred.

As shocking as it sounds -- a look of pure joy spread across Kanye's face just seconds after licking the cone ... something that hasn't been seen in ages.

Macaulay Culkin's new pizza-inspired band made their concert debut last night in New York ... and the former child actor busted out a sweet kazoo solo during the 8-minute set.

Culkin's band The Pizza Underground -- who play Velvet Underground parodies with pizza-themed song titles and lyrics -- played an 8-minute set Friday night ... and fans waited around the block to get in.

Macaulay's sweet solo went down during the bands song "Take a Bite of the Wild Slice" (3:40 in the video) ... and then the group handed out pizza afterward to make up for the short gig.

Jay Z continued his 22-day quest to eat an entirely vegan diet yesterday in Vegas ... and then partied his face off while paying tribute to Beyonce's new surprise album.

Sources at Hakkasan restaurant tell us Jay dined on strictly vegan options after his concert ... while his friends -- including rapper/producer Timbaland -- ate crispy duck salad and roasted Chilean seabass.

Afterward Jay and his entourage hit up Hakkasan's nightclub (pictured above) ... and toasted champagne to honor his wife Beyonce's surprise album when the DJ played their new collab "Drunk in Love."

99 problems but a dish 'aint one.

The Foo Fighters just had a CRAZY blowout jam session in Moorpark, CA ... at a pizza joint!

Dave Grohl and FF showed up last night -- unannounced -- at the appropriately named Redballs Rock & Roll Pizza ... surprising 200 serious eaters who paid 10 bucks apiece for the Chevy Metal Christmas Dance Party.

Chevy Metal's a band featuring Foo drummer Taylor Hawkins.

The Foo Fighters and Chevy Metal joined forces on stage for more than 2 hours ... while the audience gorged themselves into a stupor.

This is the first gig for the Fighters in months ... the rehearsals have been downright bloody. (see pic below). They're playing two gigs this week in Mexico City ... where they're Numero Uno.

Nicki Minaj turned 31 years old yesterday -- and she celebrated with two voluptuous helpings of BOOB CAKE!!!

After arriving in a hot pink Lambo, the rapper strolled into Philippe restaurant in Bev Hills last night (probably because her manager is partial owner of the joint) ... where she partied with friends like 16-year-old Kylie Jenner.

A Wendy's employee gets high, drops a blunt into a cheeseburger, and serves it to a customer. No biggie ... in Colorado, maybe -- but in Georgia the customer called 911.

You might say she was smoking mad ... if you were into really bad puns.

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "burger joint" -- TMZ has learned, a Wendy's employee was arrested last month in Georgia ... after allegedly making a cheeseburger with one crazy off-the-menu ingredient ... marijuana.

According to the Lovejoy Police Department, 32-year-old Amy Seiber was busted during her shift on November 1 ... after a customer called 911, complaining she had found a half-smoked blunt in her cheeseburger.

The customer met with police at the Wendy's location where she ordered the burger, and cops claim Seiber immediately admitted the blunt was hers.

According to police, Seiber said she had been smoking pot on the job and conveniently "misplaced" the blunt inside the customer's burger ... right on top of the pickle.

The blunt was taken as evidence and Seiber was arrested for possession of marijuana ... oh yeah, she was also promptly fired.

We spoke to the lucky customer, who tells us she experienced food poisoning-type symptoms after the incident and had to be hospitalized.

So far, she says Wendy's has offered to help pay for her medical bills ... and has even generously thrown in a $50 gift certificate. Like she'll ever eat at Wendy's ever again.

A rep for Wendy's tells TMZ, "Obviously the employee broke the rules and did not follow proper food handling steps ... We are deeply sorry that this incident occurred.” The rep says the franchisee is working out a favorable solution with the customer, including paying her medical bills.

It's only Day 1, but Beyonce and Jay Z are serious as a heart attack about adopting a no-meat diet ... because they just pigged out at a classy vegan lunch joint in L.A. to celebrate Jay's 44th birthday.

Bey and Jay ordered a variety of organic vegan menu items at Cafe Gratitude -- a place that touts its food and its people as "a celebration of our aliveness."

B&J have said they're going on a 22-day plant-based diet to become more spiritual ... and they chose today -- Jay Z's birthday -- as the day to start.

They're going whole hog, too ... ordering drinks made of apples, beets, lemon and ginger ... and entrees including marinated kale salad, Indian curried lentils and corn tacos with chipotle butternut squash.

They also discovered they're not alone on their journey ... 'cause Anne Hathaway and Ariana Grande were also at the restaurant at the same time vegging out.

Jay and Bey topped off their lunch with a dessert -- a chocolate truffle -- but there were no birthday candles and no birthday singing. They're probably saving that for the party.