Famous Food

Lindsay Lohan says she is the mystery buyer who ordered 36 gourmet cupcakes and burgers to the L.A. County Morgue today ... insisting the gesture was simply to say, "I'm sorry."

Lohan's rep tells TMZ, "Lindsay asked her assistant to pick up lunches from the In-And-Out in Huntington Park around 10:30 a.m. Around 11:00 a.m., her assistant returned with the lunches and brought them into the administrative trailer and set the food on a table for the volunteers to eat on their break."

The rep added, "Reports that Lindsay had lunches brought in for the other volunteers are completely accurate despite any claims to the contrary."

"Additionally, Lindsay ordered cupcakes for the staff and volunteers. When they were delivered, morgue supervisors would not let them into the building."

"It is unfortunate that Lindsay's well-intentioned actions were not taken in the spirit in which she intended; to say she was sorry for yesterday's misunderstanding."

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told TMZ ... he turned away the cupcake delivery guy because the move is simply, "unacceptable" ... adding, "We're not here to accept food."

The L.A. County Coroner just turned away a dude who was delivering 36 fancy cupcakes to Lindsay Lohan and 35 of her closest friends at the morgue.

We found out about it and called Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter to inquire, and he said, "WHAT!" -- and then went to the front door and turned the delivery guy away (see video below).

Winter told TMZ, "It's unacceptable. We're not here to accept food," adding there are not 36 people in Lindsay's program, so some of the cupcakes were apparently earmarked for the Coroner's staff.

We found out the order was placed this morning at the fancy, Magnolia Bakery by someone Lindsay knows.

The bakery owner would not tell TMZ whether the order was placed at Lindsay's behest, but Winter told TMZ he spoke with Lindsay and she said she had nothing to do with the order.

We now know why Pierce Brosnan's wife claims she suffered "permanent injuries to her health, strength and activity" at an L.A. restaurant -- she took a bite of carrot cake with a special surprise inside ... a rock-hard walnut shell.

We broke the story ... Keely Brosnan sued R&D Kitchen claiming she became "sore, ill, and injured" after eating at the joint in October, 2009.

The suit doesn't specify what she ate -- but a rep for the restaurant now tells us ... Keely had complained about a walnut shell inside a piece of carrot cake that may have fractured her tooth.

The rep tells us, the restaurant immediately contacted its insurance company after the incident -- insisting, "We take food safety and cleanliness very seriously." Apparently, if a payout was offered, it wasn't enough.

"Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro is honoring the memory of Apple CEO Steve Jobs in the tastiest way imaginable -- with a GIANT 18" Mac-themed cake.

Valastro -- a self-professed Apple geek -- tells TMZ, he baked the black-and-white cake with chocolate fudge this morning ... and will be displaying it in a refrigerator in his New Jersey bakery this afternoon.

Keely Brosnan -- the wife of one of the best James Bonds ever -- has sued a Santa Monica restaurant, claiming she ate tainted food.

Keely claims she went to R & D Kitchen -- a fancy schmancy restaurant that has great burgers -- back in October 2009, and became "sore, ill and injured."

The suit does not say what Keely ate, but claims she "sustained serious and permanent injuries to her health, strength and activity."

She's suing for unspecified damages.

Zac Efron went to Chicago ... and all he got was a $100,000 bottle of champagne from the son of a Russian billionaire!!!

Efron was at the Board Room nightclub Tuesday night -- for an event organized by Elite Entertainment -- along with Heather Graham and other people from a movie they're working on together.

Sources at the club tell us ... the Russian saw the actors and wanted to send them a gift, so he fired over a 15 litre bottle of Armand de Brignac Nebuchadnezzar Champagne, also known as "Ace of Spades."

The Russian also bought some stuff for his OWN table, including 2 magnum bottles of Grey Goose, 2 magnum bottles of Dom Perignon, 4 bottles of Cristal and 3 magnum bottles of Laurent-Perrier Brut Rosé.

The total bill -- $112,550 ... PLUS -- dude dropped a $22,510 TIP for his server, Jasmine -- 20%.

Not bad for a Tuesday night.

8 years ago, a white tiger bit the hell out of Roy ... but last night, Roy took a bite out of a white tiger.

One night before the 8th anniversary of the infamous tiger mauling ... Roy and his special friend Siegfried celebrated Roy's 67th birthday at the Mirage in Vegas on Sunday ... by diving in to a special white tiger birthday cake.

Hooters claims another restaurant chain stole its trade secrets ... no, not chicken wings ... it's another part of the bird.

According to court docs obtained by TMZ, Hooters claims a former VP defected to a competing company -- La Cima Restaurants, LLC which is now developing a competing boob-intensive chain called "Twin Peaks" -- but before he left he allegedly pilfered some highly-sensitive documents which serve as a business road map.

Hooters contends Joseph Hummel, the alleged Benedict Arnold of large and often artificial brests, is now in possession of plans related to management, recruitment, distribution and sales. As for recruitment, we're thinking it should be kinda obvious.

Hooters wants a judge to order La Cima to fire Hummel and to ignore whatever they now know about Hooters based on the sensitive documents. Good luck with that one.

It's only been a few hours since T.I. was officially declared a free man -- and his family is already throwing together a "welcome home" party for the ages ... filled with mountains of Southern-style cooking.

As we previously reported, T.I. was released from an Atlanta halfway house early this morning -- and we're told his aunt and wife whipped up a bomb-ass celebration dinner ... featuring a family-recipe mac 'n cheese, fried and BBQ chicken, fish, ribs, collard greens, salad, and RED VELVET cake.

It's going down any minute now -- and we're told the entire to-do will be potluck style ... with all of T.I.'s close friends and family bringing over even more food.

Consider this feast round 2 -- T.I. celebrated with a similarly soulful meal about a month ago on his way to the halfway house ... before he was thrown back in prison.

The SNACK GOD who invented DORITOS has passed away ... but TMZ has learned his funeral is nacho average ceremony ... 'cause the guy will be buried with 3 FLAVORS of his prized invention.

Arch West -- the 97-year-old ex-Frito-Lay legend -- died last week, and his daughter announced the family plans on "tossing Doritos chips in before they put the dirt over the urn" when he is buried.

TMZ spoke with West's son-in-law ... who tells us the family will use Original, Cool Ranch and Nacho flavored Doritos, since those were West's favorite. He was NOT a fan of the Cheeseburger flavor, so those will not be used.

According to his daughter, West came up with the idea for Doritos during a family vacation to San Diego ... when he discovered a snack shack selling fried tortilla chips in 1961.

An argument outside BOA last night ... Michael Lohan claiming he was puked on ... a witness claiming MiLo was the one who did the puking.

Watch the video and decide ... who puked?

3:30 PM: Multiple sources close to Sarah have contacted us to say she is absolutely NOT anti-gay ... and she had no idea about Chick-fil-A's non-culinary practices. Mystery solved.

On television "Modern Family" star Sarah Hyland, 20, has two gay uncles, but in real life she just attended the grand opening of a new Chick-fil-A restaurant in Hollywood ... an evangelical Christian owned corporation which has been accused of being anti-gay.

Although Chick-fil-A has responded to the homophobic allegations by saying they "serve and value all people," they also routinely contribute to anti-gay organizations like Focus on the Family.

Pro-equality groups aren't happy about the fast food chain's latest outpost and are planning a protest in front of the new Hollywood location on Saturday.

While Sarah may not be aware of the chain's practices, TMZ contacted her rep but have not heard back.

Christina Milian got a little something extra at an L.A. restaurant last week ... after she took a bite of her Kobe beef salad ... and allegedly got a mouthful of ABC gum.

Sources close to Christina tell TMZ ... she was out to dinner at Mexicali restaurant in Studio City ... and halfway through her salad, she felt a weird, chewy substance in her mouth.

Christina spit it out, and looked in horror as she eyed a giant wad of chewed gum. She then made a beeline for the bathroom and threw up.

We're told the restaurant comped her meal. But Christina is still freaked out about what happened, and filed a complaint with the L.A. Department of Health.

TMZ spoke with a rep for the Dept., who confirmed a complaint was indeed filed.

Christina tells TMZ, she's lookin' for a lawyer, but says, "The most important thing to me is to make sure my health is okay. Ever since the incident I have not eaten out."

11:21 AM: Mexicali owner Allen Ravert tells TMZ, “We have been here for over 17 years and always had an A rating from the health department ... We have cameras in our kitchen and didn’t see anything."

They might be located 3,000 miles away from Ground Zero, but the folks at the legendary Los Angeles Canter's Deli want to thank the servicemen of the area ... with tasty, tasty treats.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of September 11, they will be handing out free cupcakes to all firefighters, police officers and military personnel (provided they come in uniform or show some proof of service).

Lemon Basket -- the restaurant that was at the center of the VH1 show "Famous Food" -- is re-opening tonight after being closed for a few days thanks to a little problem ... with cockroaches.

According to our sources, the restaurant -- located on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood -- was shut down for a couple of days after being cited for health violations involving "cockroach infestation."

But it's all good now -- we're told the restaurant remedied all their issues and is taking reservations for dinner tonight.

It ain't just Whole Foods that has an issue with the ingredients in Bethenny Frankel's Skinnygirl Margarita -- now, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the company that owns the brand.

In the suit, filed in federal court in California, Reneta Bonar claims she and many other people have been duped by Beam Global Spirits for making "deceptive statements" on the label of Skinnygirl.

According to the lawsuit, Beam advertises the drink as "all natural" -- and claims it contains no preservatives. But Bonar says it's all BS because the drink contains a preservative called sodium benzoate.

Skinnygirl was recently yanked off the shelves at Whole Foods -- after the market decided the drink was not using all natural ingredients.

Bonar is suing to force Beam to "engage in a corrective advertising campaign" ... and pay unspecified damages.

Beam has issued a statement saying, "In today's litigious society, nothing is surprising. The litigation filed in relation to the labeling of Skinnygirl Margarita is frivolous. We will defend our case vigorously, and we are fully confident we will prevail."