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Restauranteur Keith McNally is reflecting back on his heated interaction with James Corden three years ago.
In 2022, the 73-year-old, who owns three of New York’s mainstay brasseries, wound up banning the 46-year-old comedian from his restaurant, Balthazar, after Corden supposedly made a female server cry. Following their confrontation, McNally called out Corden on Instagram for his “obnoxious behavior.”
Though, at the time, McNally was adamant about criticizing Corden publicly, he’s now admitted his reasons for doing so were unethical.
In an audio excerpt obtained by People magazine from his new memoir, I Regret Almost Everything, the food connoisseur said he wasn’t necessarily sharing his thoughts online out of respect for his staff. In fact, he was mostly trying to help grow his business’ social media presence.
“By exposing Corden’s abuse, it appeared as though I was defending a principle, when all I was doing was seeking the approval of my young Balthazar staff,” he wrote.
“Corden called me four times the day the (Instagram) post came out, each time asking me to please delete it. On the last call he sounded desperate,” McNally recalled. “Relishing my hold over someone so famous, I told him I wouldn’t delete it. Like a little dictator, I was intoxicated with the power I’d received.
“For someone who’s hyperconscious of humiliation since suffering a stroke, it now seems monstrous that I didn’t consider the humiliation I was subjecting Corden to,” he continued. “Especially as I hadn’t personally seen the incident I so vividly described on Instagram.”
According to People, McNally also referred to Corden as a “gift from heaven” at one point in his new book — a stark 180 from his previous public comments attacking the actor-comedian’s behavior.
“James Corden is a Hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago,” he wrote on Instagram in October 2022.
“I don't often 86 a customer, to today I 86'd Corden. It did not make me laugh.”
McNally then went on to recount two incidents that, he claimed, had been reported to him by a manager at Balthazar.
The first report claimed Corden showed one manager a hair he’d found in his food. “Corden was extremely nasty and said, ‘Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all our drinks so far,’” the report read.
The second detailed a time when Corden was at Balthazar with his wife for brunch.
“A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K. and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk. M. K. informed the floor manager, G. The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad,” the report said. “That's when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: ‘You can't do your job! You can't do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!’”
The report claimed Corden was “pleasant” to the manager but “nasty to the server.”
Shortly after his mid-day sit-down at Balthazar, Corden apologized for some of his behavior that got him banned and unbanned from the establishment during an episode of The Late Late Show.
He specifically expressed remorse for his comment about making the omelette himself.
“It is a comment I deeply regret. I understand the difficulties of being a server, I’ve worked shifts at restaurants for years, I have such respect for anyone who does that job,” Corden said.
“I didn’t shout or scream. I didn’t get up out of my seat. I didn’t call anyone names or use derogatory language,” he continued. “I have been walking around thinking that I hadn’t done anything wrong, right? But the truth is I have. I made a rude comment, and it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment. It was ungracious to the server.”
English (US) ·