Famous Food

"Cars, clothing, shoes" -- that's the type of sponsorships UCLA hoops star Johnny Juzang wants after the new NCAA rule change ... telling TMZ Sports, he's excited to make some deals!

The NCAA announced earlier this summer that athletes can now make money off their name, image and likeness ... and when we got Juzang out at Ocean Prime in Beverly Hills this week, he told us he's ready to start negotiating.

Juzang told us he wants to rep things that he aligns with ... which, of course, includes vehicles and swag!!

"I love cars, clothing, shoes -- all that type of stuff," the 20-year-old said. "Should be some cool opportunities."

The 6-foot-6 guard tells us he's also interested in food brands -- specifically healthy ones.

"I eat healthy," Juzang said. "So, different brands that’ll align with that -- it’ll be interesting, man."

He added, "It’ll be a cool way to share a little bit about myself. It’s going to be exciting, man."

Juzang -- who averaged 16 points per game last season -- became a star after leading the Bruins to the 2021 Final Four -- their first appearance there in 13 years.

JJ declared for the 2021 NBA Draft shortly after, but he withdrew before the deadline and is now back in Westwood for his junior season.

And, he says he's hoping the Bruins can make another strong run for the title in 2022!

Popeyes is gearing up for the release of its chicken nuggets in more ways than one ... because it desperately wants to avoid the violence that came with its sandwich chaos.

Who can forget the nationwide madness in fall 2019 when folks were scrambling, kicking and even punching to get the restaurant's new chicken sandwich. Long lines were the least of their troubles, as multiple fights got out of hand ... and there was even a fatal stabbing.

Nearly 2 years later, a rep for Popeyes tells TMZ ... the sandwich release problems are still fresh in their minds, and "across the system, franchisees have worked to increase staffing to better meet the demand for Popeyes new Chicken Nuggets."

We're told corporate execs are visiting locations all over the U.S. in person to "identify ways first-hand the brand can quickly meet the excitement and interest from our guests of our new product."

Likewise, Amin Dhanani -- President of Popeyes Operations for Dhanani Group -- tells TMZ it's staffing up at all of its roughly 300 franchises and insists employees will be ready for the high demand for nuggets.

He says everyone was caught off guard by the 2019 sandwich craze, but now they know what to expect and will be more properly equipped to handle it. Dhanani is a bit concerned about running out of supply when the nuggets roll out July 27, but Popeyes is reportedly already stockpiling ... just in case.

Macaroni and cheese and ice cream -- 2 great tastes that, apparently, go great together -- because the, umm ... unique flavor sold out in just 60 minutes!!!

Here's the deal ... Kraft and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream joined forces to create a limited-edition mac and cheese ice cream flavor and the demand was so great for the dessert debut, the website crashed within 9 minutes and the entire 2,000 pint inventory was wiped out online within the hour.

The ice cream launched Wednesday on National Mac & Cheese Day -- yes, that's a real thing -- and, in addition to online sales, they hawked it in Van Leeuwen's brick-and-mortar shops nationwide. Well, for a brief period, anyway ... we're told it took only 3 hours to sell out of their 9,000 scoops.

"Holes" star Khleo Thomas was one of the lucky ones to get their hands on the $12 pint ... and ya gotta see his reaction to his first bite!!!

Khleo says Van Leeuwen totally nailed the Kraft Mac & Cheese flavor, something he says he wasn't expecting.

For those who missed out, don't worry ... Kraft is launching an online sweepstakes with the chance to win 2 free pints.

IT WORKED!!!!

USA track star Christina Clemons now officially has a deal with Doritos -- just weeks after she raced in Cool Ranch earrings ... TMZ Sports has confirmed.

The 31-year-old hurdler wore the little snack bags on her ears at last month's U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Oregon ... and she balled out in the pieces, earning a spot on Team USA's Olympic roster after an amazing 12.53 finish in the 100-meter hurdles race.

The delicious jewelry ended up going viral ... and Clemons told us at the time she was hoping all of the shine would ead to some sort of deal with the chip company.

And, on Monday, she announced it did!!!

"Now I’m OFFICIALLY Cool Ranch Clemons 🥳," the track star said. "Thank you Doritos for making it official!"

The brand confirmed the deal to us, saying, "Doritos has entered into an official partnership with Christina Clemons."

"More to come on how the partnership will come to life -- Christina is a little busy over the next few weeks!"

We're told Doritos hooked her up with some new custom-made Cool Ranch bling to "celebrate our partnership and wish her luck."

SharkNinja's products are supposed to blend ingredients, not flesh -- but a California woman claims one of its blenders did a gory number on her fingers.

Nicole Guttormsen's suing the kitchen appliance company over its Nutri Ninja BL480 blender, which she alleges is a defective and dangerous product ... and she says these pics of the bloody mess support that.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Nicole says she was blending ingredients in the Nutri Ninja when the canister shot off the base ... leaving the spinning blades exposed and causing significant injuries to her hand and fingers.

We'll say this ... her alleged photo evidence ain't for the queasy.

You can see 3 of Nicole's fingers suffered gnarly injuries. While it's not spelled out in her lawsuit, it sure looks like some of the cuts went to the bone.

In any event, Nicole claims the blender's defective because it generated an excessive amount of pressure and the threads that are supposed to secure the canister onto the blade assembly don't work properly.

George Lopez's Chingon Kitchen turned into George Lopez's Car Crash Kitchen ... when a pickup truck smashed into the comedian's restaurant, leaving behind a huge mess!!!

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... a driver ran a stop sign Tuesday outside The Brews Hall in Torrance, CA, hitting another car, causing it to spin out of control and sending it crashing into George's joint.

We're told the drivers of the 2 cars were injured, as well as a passenger and a pedestrian ... all 4 were taken to a local hospital with moderate injuries. No one inside the restaurant was hurt.

As you can see, there's lots of broken glass, busted frames and smashed-up storage racks from where the car crashed into the front entrance, making for a pretty big cleanup job.

How's Joey Chestnut recovering from his 76-hot dog, 22,800-calorie 4th Of July feast???

MIXED GREENS AND VEGETABLES, BABY!!!

TMZ Sports got the planet's greatest eater out in NYC just one day after he put away a world-record number of wieners ... and he told us the key to recovery from here is simply salads and greens.

"I'm still bloated," the 37-year-old legend said. "If I start sweating, I'll smell like meat. But I go in knowing that it's going to take a couple days to recover."

"As soon as I can, I'm going to start eating a salad, greens and high fiber."

It's a miracle Chestnut can even consider eating again at this point ... 'cause the dude consumed about two weeks worth of food in 10 minutes at the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Sunday.

In total, Chestnut plowed through 1,368 grams of fat, 1,824 grams of carbs and 836 grams of protein.

Chestnut obviously didn't feel wonderful -- at least physically -- outside of his hotel Monday ... and because of it, he seemed to hint that an ending to his eating career could be on the horizon.

"I tried pushing a little bit harder but I'll tell you what, last year I felt I recovered a little bit quicker," Chestnut said. "This year, I'm getting older and I don't know how much more I can push it while I'm getting older."

"It's like anybody. You have to be aware of your body.”

That said, Chestnut added, "As long as it’s still fun and as long as I’m healthy, I’ll be doing it. I hope I can keep making gains, but it’s going to get harder and harder. I can see that coming."

Joey Chestnut is again a hot dog eating-champion, breaking his own record for a stunning 76 wieners ... something that would've been great to see, but made impossible by ESPN.

The annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest was held once more Sunday -- a 4th of July tradition now -- and JC was gunning for an even higher count than last year's haul ... which clocked in at 75, a new world record at the time. In 2021, he surpassed it by one.

Joey was scarfing down dogs on camera, but when the crucial moment arrived for hot dogs 75 and 76 ... the broadcast glitched up big time, and a still shot of Joey stayed frozen on screen for a good few seconds. Moments later, time had jumped ... and everyone missed it.

As incredible of a feat it was for Joey, his performance was unfortunately outshined by the technical issue ... which is going more viral than even Joey is right now. Some folks captured the flub live and reposted it on the internet ... and yeah, it's as bad as they're making it out to be.

Anyway ... congrats to Joey for taking the big prize (again) and holding on tightly to the belt. It's not an easy task, especially when you're pretty much tasked with one-upping your own stomach year after year ... something he's done successfully for quite a long time now.

The woman behind the petition demanding James Corden kill his 'Spill Your Guts' segment on the "Late Late Show" says she's facing tons of backlash ... including threats to her life.

Kim Saira, who started the petition that now has more than 45,000 signatures, tells TMZ ... despite tons of support, she's also getting flooded with hate mail, with the angriest critics going so far as to send her death threats on the daily.

Kim says she's also disappointed James' only response to her petition to end what she sees as a racist segment towards Asians ... has been a brief statement when he was on the radio with Howard Stern.

Kim says James could help put an end to the hate coming her way -- some of which she says includes racial attacks -- but she's wondering if he even cares about what she's going through.

As we reported ... the petition accuses James of encouraging anti-Asian racism by "continuously mocking" foods from Asian cultures in his 'Spill Your Guts' segment, a game where he tries to get celebs to answer tough questions, or eat the foods in front of them.

James says the segment will switch up the foods instead of axing it all together, and they'll be going with grub that's bad for diets and staying away from foods associated with different cultures.

A guy in Iowa who wanted to get his dip on during his McDonald's meal went from hungry to dangerously hangry when he discovered his order was missing something ... according to cops, anyway.

Ankeny PD Lt. Rob Kovacs tells TMZ ... Robert Golwitzer Jr. was arrested for making a false report of an explosive or incendiary device -- a class D felony, we're told -- after cops say he called the Mickey D's where he'd just picked up an order of nuggets and said he hoped the restaurant would blow up ... because they forgot his sauces.

Cops say Golwitzer also mentioned wanting to punch an employee because of the flub. McDonald's turned his number over to cops, and when they contacted Golwitzer he came down to the station, fessed up and got arrested.

We still don't know what sort of dipping sauce was allegedly missing from the guy's order, but if it was the sweet and sour ... we sorta understand.

IKEA has more work to do if it wants forgiveness for a misguided Juneteenth celebration ... because one of Georgia's leading Black voices ain't buying what the company's selling in the apology aisle.

Georgia State NAACP President James Woodall tells TMZ ... the Swedish-based big-box retailer's statement from earlier this week -- when they explained their Atlanta store was wrong for a Juneteenth-themed menu -- is pretty much lip-service without further action.

Woodall says he thinks the whole debacle speaks to a tone-deaf culture at the company -- adding its seemingly harmless gesture actually helps perpetuate attacks against Black people by what he described as white supremacy. He also called the employee menu an empty, performative gesture.

Woodall tells us IKEA should have to answer to its constituents -- AKA employees and customers.

Atlanta's NAACP Prez, Richard Rose, seemed a bit more forgiving -- or at the very least, not ready to torch them like Woodall did.

He says he can't say for certain their intention was to be racist with the menu -- which included fried chicken, collard greens and watermelon -- but does acknowledge it was obviously insensitive. He's chalking that up to a possible lack of diversity among decision-makers.

As for accepting the apology ... Rose says that's up to the 20 employees who called out in protest.

Blueface is the proud new owner of a soul food restaurant in SoCal, but it might never have happened if he hadn't had a little misfortune ... with his car.

The rapper joined "TMZ Live" Wednesday on the heels of opening a new eatery called Blue's Fish & Soul in Santa Clarita -- which he says is the only spot to get legit soul food in the area -- and told a serendipitous story of how it went down.

Blueface says it all started when he got back from a trip, and discovered his car had been stolen from the airport valet ... bummer of a welcome home.

He didn't let it get him down, though, and just went to a Mercedes dealership to buy a new ride ... and on his way home, he stopped at a restaurant called SCV Fish Market. He says the owner was literally minutes from selling the place to someone else.

That's when Blue seized his opportunity, and outbid the other buyer on the spot ... and the rest is history.

For those interested, the menu at Blue's features his mom's Southern recipes for fried fish, shrimp and hushpuppies, chicken platters, mac and cheese, collard greens and a lot more. Plus, his signature Blueface lemonade!

IKEA is under fire after one of its stores in Atlanta allegedly listed fried chicken and watermelon as menu items for its employees to supposedly honor Juneteenth.

The furniture giant reportedly sent an email to employees last week alerting them that "to honor the perseverance of Black Americans and acknowledge the progress yet to be made" it was also going to roll out a special menu.

And that's where IKEA dropped the ball BIG TIME ... because the so-called special menu -- again, for a holiday commemorating the end of slavery -- included fried chicken, watermelon and mac n' cheese ... some of those items, of course, perpetuate racial stereotypes.

An employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told CBS46, "You cannot say serving watermelon on Juneteenth is a soul food menu when you don’t even know the history, they used to feed slaves watermelon during the slave time."

The outrage led to 20 employees calling out from work. Word that workers were furious quickly began to spread at the store and it ultimately reached the store manager ... who sent out another internal email apologizing. The menu was ultimately altered to include cornbread, mashed potatoes and meatloaf.

An anonymous employee reportedly said none of the coworkers who sat down to create the menu was Black, but we reached out to IKEA and a spokesperson refutes that ... saying there were Black co-workers involved, but it offered no further details.

The spokesperson added, "We value our co-workers' voices and changed the menu after receiving feedback that the foods that were selected are not reflective of the deeply meaningful traditional foods historically served as part of Juneteenth celebrations. We got it wrong and we sincerely apologize."

COOL RANCH DORITOS EARRINGS FOR THE WIN!!!

Check out U.S. track star Christina Clemons -- who rocked the snacky jewelry during her 100m hurdles race this weekend ... AND MADE THE OLYMPIC TEAM!!!

The 31-year-old -- who had never made the Olympics team in the past -- put up a scorching 12.53 finish at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Oregon on Sunday ... earning her a spot on Team USA!

Now, Christina is smartly hitting up Doritos for an endorsement deal -- and we gotta say ... IT'S GENIUS!!!

Not only does Christina have an incredible backstory ... overcoming injuries and defying the odds ... but she also apparently LOVES the chips!

"I made the Olympic team wearing a bag of @Doritos on my ears," Clemons tweeted ... "Twitter, I need y’all to do your thing! We need to blow Doritos mentions UP 🙌🏾😂"

Hey, the Doritos slogan is "For the Bold" -- and what's bolder than wearing chip bags on your ears for the biggest race of your life ... and then winning!?!?

So far, Doritos hasn't responded to Christina -- but we gotta imagine they're gonna jump all over this.

And, if they need more convincing ... just watch Christina's emotional post-race speech when she explained all that she's overcome.

"I've been going after this team since 2012," Clemons said.

"I ruptured my Achilles in 2013. I wasn't healthy enough in 2016. We had to wait a whole year in 2020 and now here I've been looked over, I've been counted out but when God is with you, it doesn't matter! I'm just so happy!"

"I'm just ready! I'm ready! My teammates, America, we go so hard!"

LET'S GOOOOO!!!!!

Wolfgang Puck loves seeing famous faces sitting down at tables in his restaurants, but he can't always put a face with a name ... Ariana Grande had him thinking she was in school.

The celeb chef joined us on "TMZ Live" Monday and we asked him about hosting tons of celebs at his famous restaurants in Los Angeles, usually for special occasions.

Wolfgang usually goes up to the table for a few kind words, but even he admits he doesn't always know who he's talking to off the bat -- as it played out, hilariously, with Ariana recently.

Ya gotta hear the way Wolfgang broke the ice with Ariana at Hotel Bel-Air, where she was dining with new hubby Dalton Gomez. It's a hilarious bit of mistaken identity, with a happy ending.

Wolfgang's getting a pass with Ariana ... and it sounds like there were no surprises when another famous couple, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, dined out at his spot at the Pendry Hotel in WeHo.

The restaurant mogul is the subject of a new documentary, appropriately called "Wolfgang," coming out Friday on Disney+ ... and he shared some details about his challenging upbringing in Austria, and those circumstances made him determined to make it in America.

The CEO of Dippin' Dots is being sued by a former girlfriend who says he went on a campaign to humiliate her by sending nude images of her to numerous people, including her mom ... but the CEO says the lawsuit is an attempt to extort him.

Amanda Brown says in her lawsuit, she was in a relationship with CEO Scott Fischer from 2019-2020. She says the relationship was tumultuous, partly because of what she calls his "dangerous tendency to abuse alcohol."

Brown claims Fischer solicited private sexual images from her, which he extracted by threatening to withhold on "continued financial support."

She says things got even worse after they broke up when he allegedly sent "private sexual images" to various people "and attempted to blackmail [her] to behave in certain manners." It appears from the lawsuit they were in a dispute over who got the dog and a certain vehicle.

She says he threatened to release private sexual images to Pornhub, and on other occasions, she says he made good on his threats. In one alleged communication, she says he wrote, "F*** you. I'm going to do whatever I can to hurt you, watch what I'm about to do," adding, "I just sent your nudes out to everyone ... I'm going to make sure any sex pics, bad pics are sent to your employer ... then I'll sue you for [the dog] ... do you want to see what war is like ... I'm about to show you."

Brown claims last January Fischer sent a sexual image of Amanda to her mother with this message ... "I'm sending this out tomorrow. Then I'm going to file a petition for [the dog]. I asked for a peaceful exit. I said I had a girlfriend and wanted to move on peacefully. I can hurt so much more. Watch."

Brown said in the lawsuit Fischer has used private sexual images "to gain a thing of value" against other girlfriends. She also claims Fischer was physically violent.

Worse yet for Fischer, if Brown’s allegations are true, the dude may end up behind bars. In Oklahoma, it's a felony "to disseminate without consent the private sexual image of another with the intent to harass, intimidate or coerce the other ..."

Fischer's legal team tells us, "This inflammatory lawsuit brought forth by Ms. Brown is nothing more than an attempt to extort Mr. Fischer after he ended their relationship. It is unfortunate that she has stooped to the level of attacking my client through an outlandish lawsuit, covering up her illegal actions."