Celebrity Chef With Prior Legal Troubles Puts Restaurants in Chapter...

David Ruggerio, a former Food Network host and the owner of several Manhattan restaurants, put two of his restaurants in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.

The adjacent properties on the Upper West Side, Jalapeño and Bomboloni, were both opened last year and are co-owned by Ruggerio, although he owns the majority of Jalapeño. A third restaurant owned by Ruggerio and investment group Sushi a Go-Go was seized for failing to pay taxes in September, Crain’s New York Business reported.

This isn’t Ruggerio’s first financial problem with one of his restaurants. Le Chantilly, a restaurant where he worked as a chef, was in huge tax debt in 1999, Ruggerio told the New York Times.

As a result, he overcharged customer credit cards by $140,000. He initially said the restaurant was “floating” the credit cards to get money faster to pay its debts. At first, he was paying the credit cards back, “and then not repaying them. It got bigger and bigger. I mean, a dollar’s a big thing. This got gargantuan,” he said in 2000.

Ruggerio pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny as a result and was sentenced to 500 hours of community service. His show on Food Network was canceled as a result.

Lansky’s Old World Deli, also on the Upper West Side, is still co-owned by Ruggerio.