Famous Food

Gerard Butler and a slew of other stars have been sued for allegedly stiffing two former employees out of overtime pay at a Hollywood restaurant the celebs co-own.

The ex-workers -- a cook and a dishwasher -- at Shin BBQ filed the suit today in Los Angeles County Superior Court ... claiming the owners cheated them out of wages, rest time, and meal breaks.

Shin BBQ is a popular Korean barbeque joint in Hollywood ... co-owned by Gerard, Danny and Chris Masterson, Laura Prepon, and several others including Steve Aoki -- whose father Rocky founded Benihana.

The workers are asking for their back pay, other damages, and an order forcing the restaurant owners to open their payroll books.

President Obama's personal credit rating seems to be doing just fine -- because the Commander-In-Chief slapped down some plastic to cover the bill at a burger lunch yesterday ... and tipped more than 35%.

Obama hit up Ted's Bulletin restaurant in D.C. yesterday where he surprised a group of campaign volunteers who had won an essay contest.

Sources connected to the restaurant tell TMZ ... the President ordered a plain cheeseburger, fries, and side salad ... and an ice cold glass of water to wash it down.

We're told Obama asked for the bill personally -- and picked up the tab for the entire group on his credit card. In total, with tip, Obama dropped over $200.

One person who was inside the restaurant tells us, "He couldn't have been nicer."

His restaurants failed miserably just two months after opening their doors -- and now, the winner of "America's Next Great Restaurant" is blaming the entire culinary disaster ... on Chipotle.

Jamawn Woods tells TMZ, Chipotle -- an investor in the NBC reality show -- was supposed to provide a management team to run his three Soul Daddy restaurants for one year ... but they really screwed the pooch.

According to Jamawn, Chipotle hired a bum management team with NO experience cooking soul food OR running a soul food restaurant -- and his restaurants tanked as a result ... closing soon after.

J hasn't filed any legal papers yet -- but he's telling friends ... the show owes him $46,000 for a year's worth of salary ... and still hasn't paid a dime.

A rep for Chipotle tells TMZ, "The Soul Daddy restaurants were generating significant negative cash flows and, after a careful review of the business, the investor group made the decision to close the restaurants."

According to Landry -- the guy who basically cooks everything on the show -- SEVERAL publishers have already approached him about a book deal since "SP" premiered last year ... but he's still weighing his options.

Landry tells us, he's currently compiling a master list of all his recipes -- which includes his most famous dish called "Nutria Sauce Piquante" ... a gumbo made from a semiaquatic rodent called a nutria ... basically an over-sized rat.

Troy says he picked up his recipes while working at his father's restaurant as a kid -- but don't worry ... we're told the cookbook still has kinda normal things ... you know, like deep South chicken (okay, still scary).

The whole ordeal started when Guy's sister Morgan died of cancer back in February -- landing her 11-year old son, Jules, square in the middle of a custody battle between Morgan's parents and the boy's father.

According to a petition for guardianship -- filed by Jules' grandparents -- they claimed the father, Dain Pape, should not get custody because he is "living out of his motor home," and has no income.

But last week , a Marin County judge sided with Pape ... ruling he should have custody -- and the grandparents should hand over Jules.

But since then Pape tells us ... Jules has been vacationing with his uncle Guy on a remote lake in Northern California -- with NO phone service -- and as a result he's been unable to take custody.

Pape says he hasn't driven to the lake because he wants to avoid a confrontation with the family. He simply wants the grandparents to comply with the court order.

We reached out to Guy's reps, but so far ... no response.

A rep for the band tells us the egg stunt wasn't Steve's idea -- that honor goes to a creative fan who posted the challenge on a website ... and word spread FAST.

We're told the band received hundreds of calls, emails, Facebook and Twitter messages BEGGING the frontman to take on the eggs ... and Steve decided that if fans could raise $10k for St. Jude's Children's Hospital ... he would do it.

Smash Mouth launched a fundraising website on Causes.com ... and they've already raised more than $6k in less than 24 hours ... so it's only a matter of time before Steve has a date with destiny.

Woods is still technically an employee at the Chrysler automobile assembly plant in Michigan -- where he worked as a fork lift operator before trying out for the NBC reality show.

When Woods made the finals, Chrysler presented him with an award for his accomplishment -- and granted him a one-year leave of absence to pursue his dream.

But now that all of Jamawn's "Soul Daddy" restaurants have closed their doors -- a rep for Chrysler says the company intends to hold up their side of the bargain if Woods wants to come back to work ... adding, "He is still a part of our family."

Jamawn Woods won the first season of the reality show on May 1 -- and his "healthy soul food" chain "Soul Daddy" opened in New York, Los Angeles and Minneapolis the following day.

But the LA and NY locations closed on June 14 -- and yesterday, the final location in the Mall of America shut its doors for good.

The man who filed the report is Tommy Karas -- who claims he wrangled up investors for Flav's Las Vegas fried chicken project back in April and was supposed to handle the money for the deal.

According to the report, Flav went behind Tommy's back -- telling the investors HE was the money man ... and even getting them to send him a $30,000 investment ... cutting Tommy out of the deal altogether.

Tommy filed a report with the Las Vegas Metro PD -- but law enforcement sources tell us ... "The allegations did not meet the elements of a crime" -- and cops will not pursue the case because, "It's a civil matter."

According to the clip, the female crew member on VH1's new restaurant-themed "Famous Food" -- which also stars Heidi Montag, Danielle Staub, and Ashley Dupre -- refused to return Vinnie's car after a long day of shooting, claiming the actor had been drinking a lot ... and Vinnie FLIPPED.

Vinnie denies drinking in the clip -- insisting he poured his wine back into the bucket all night ... but the crew member doesn't budge.

Rumor has it Britney has banned junk food -- and alcohol, no less -- from their upcoming mega-tour. When we asked Nicki at LAX yesterday if she'd miss the sugar rush, she told us, "It makes you gain a lot of weight."

Flav tells TMZ he had his attorney pull the license yesterday. He tells us, "I had a licensing agreement with Nick Cimino and that's all we had. It was his business to run from there and the business was not run right."

As we previously reported, employees were claiming their payroll checks were bouncing, which Cimino blamed on "a credit card glitch."

Flav also said the food was a problem too, telling us, "Let me be straight up with you, I went up inside there on April 2 and I found potato salad that expired on February 28. And it's then when I realized I can't do business with this man and I really hope no one ate those potatoes." Us too.

Moments ago, in front of the Crazy Girls strip club at The Riviera Hotel and Casino ... Flav sealed the deal to open a mega-store at the Riv called, "Flavor Flav's House Of Flavor."

We're told "House of Flavors" will expand Flav's empire beyond a simple poultry eatery -- and will include a bar, a merchandising area with Flavor Flav memorabilia PLUS a recording studio and a stage!

We're told construction of the mega-Flav endeavor is set to begin on Monday ... with the grand opening currently slated for May 30.

Carmelo's trade to the New York Knicks isn't even official yet, but Sandy Levine, owner of the Carnegie Deli, tells TMZ they are already launching the new Melo Sandwich and it is packed with everything you could ever want on a sandwich:

-- Pastrami
-- Corned Beef
-- Salami
-- Bacon
-- Tomato
-- Russian dressing
-- On rye bread

The sandwich will run you a cool $21.95 and that price was chosen for a reason -- if they sell around 3,000,000 of them ... it equals the $65 million contract Melo is likely to sign with the Knicks.

Antacid costs extra.

TMZ has obtained photos of Flav at his new "Flav's Fried Chicken" restaurant in Clinton, Iowa yesterday -- where he debuted his eye-popping yellow and orange menus ... and his self-indulgent sign out front.

So we gotta ask ...