It was the omelette explosion heard around the world.
James Corden’s berating of a waiter at the New York scene restaurant Balthazar, his subsequent banning by its hot-tempered owner, and their on-again off-again attempt to make up was, back in October 2022, a delicious morality tale of celebrity gone wrong.
Now Keith McNally, the restaurateur who revealed Corden’s angry outburst, is back to reopen the feud.
In a forthcoming memoir obtained by the Daily Beast, McNally offers a semi-apology to Corden—then calls him “obnoxious” and a “b—–d” who demeaned a server so badly that she sobbed.
The comedian, 46, was blasted by fans and haters alike in 2022 year for making petty demands about his wife’s “egg yolk omelette” and ultimately flipping out on the waitstaff for a simple mistake. The restaurant owner then publicly roasted him on Instagram for his dramatic outburst.
“Ever the obnoxious customer, the English actor crossed the line at Balthazar one day and insulted one of my servers to the point where she broke down and cried,” McNally, 73, writes in his new book, I Regret Almost Everything, which is released on May 6.
The restaurateur recounts how he had discovered Instagram after suffering a devastating stroke and that his posting habit was to spell trouble.
McNally, who has owned the SoHo brasserie since it opened in the 90s, wrote that the Instagram post about Corden was largely an effort to get his staff’s approval and he was intoxicated by his newfound popularity.
He writes that he was “exaggerating” his outrage when he posted an account of the actor’s “bullying behavior” and “exposing Corden’s abuse.” He admits to subjecting Corden to humiliation, obsessing over his own self-righteousness, and not knowing the full facts when he played into the “existing prejudices of 90,000″ Instagram followers.
But despite some minor regrets, he won’t go so far as to say sorry.
“Corden called me four times the day the post came out, each time asking me to please delete it,” McNally confessed. “On the last call he sounded desperate. Relishing my hold over someone so famous, I told him I wouldn’t delete it.”
“I’m not suggesting Corden didn’t deserve the backlash from my post. (The b—–d probably did),” he wrote.
McNally first started the feud in October 2022 when he posted a scalding character assassination of Corden on Instagram.
“James Corden is a Hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man,” he posted. “And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.”
He added: “I don’t often 86 [ban] a customer, today I 86’d Corden.”
In that post he revealed that Corden had dined at Balthazar earlier in June and claimed to find a hair in his main course meal. According to the manager’s report from that first encounter that McNally posted, Corden was “extremely nasty” to a server who was “very apologetic” and said: “Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all of our drinks so far. This way I write any nasty reviews in Yelp or anything like that.”
Then, McNally revealed on Instagram, Corden returned that October for brunch. His wife ordered an egg yolk omelette and later found “a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk,” according to the second manager’s report.
“The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad,” notes McNally’s caption. “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!‘”
Corden was momentarily banned. But when the Late Late Show host apologized, McNally posted on Instagram that he was standing down: “James Corden just called me and apologised profusely. Having f—ed up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances,” he wrote.
That still wasn’t the end of it, though. Corden addressed it on his show and appeared apologetic. But then he was interviewed in The Times in his native UK, and set off fresh anger from McNally, who posted: “I don’t want to over-egg the pudding, but in Friday’s London Times Corden flip-flopped and told a massive lie AGAIN: ‘I never screamed at anyone, I didn’t shout, didn’t call anyone a name or swear or use derogatory language,” he said. “On second viewing, I found his TV ‘confessional’ contrived and phoney. The actor will say anything to save his bacon.”
Three years of silence from both parties followed—until now. McNally’s book, a frank memoir of his life before and after his stroke details his childhood, journey from working class London to New York’s social scene, divorce, family drama, and the aftermath of a stroke which left him paralyzed and unable to speak.
McNally has in recent years been happy to put himself in the middle of quite a number of public controversies. He has vigorously defended Woody Allen, posted in support of Epstein’s ex-lover Ghislaine Maxwell, and said contentious things about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Corden, of course, has managed plenty of his own drama: He got into an altercation with a fellow cyclist in 2022 and cussed him out when he was thrown from his bike; in 2024 he got into a scuffle with British Airways staff; and this years his London neighbors complained about the noise from his drumming.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Corden for comment.
The post Restaurant Boss Reopens Feud with ‘Obnoxious B’ James Corden appeared first on The Daily Beast.
