Chef Todd English sued for sexual assault that allegedly left victim with third-degree burns

Celebrity chef Todd English — along with an ex-girlfriend, Wenjie Song — has been accused of sexual assault and battery in a disturbing, bombshell lawsuit that alleges the victim was “horrifically abused” during the attack that left her with severe burns and nerve damage.

Kelly Forman, a woman with a traumatic brain injury caused by an unrelated equestrian accident, filed an amended suit in New York State Supreme Court on Sept. 24, alleging she was drugged and abused by English and Song in 2015. The suit was first filed Nov. 22, 2023.

English and Song have not yet been served.

“English’s fame created a monster who believes he can abuse and sexually assault women without consequence,” the suit claims. 

English, who is estimated to have a net worth of $18.5 million, was best known for his upscale chain of Olives restaurants and ran the luxe food hall at the Plaza Hotel. But he’s suffered a string of scandals and allegations.

He has four cookbooks and he appeared on several PBS food shows, including “Food Trip With Todd English.”

Just last week, the four time James Beard Award winner launched his inaugural Whitefish Food and Wine Festival in Montana.

The toque has also been sued numerous times, gone to rehab, and has regularly appeared in Page Six, including in 2014 after getting a drink thrown in his face while making out with two half-dressed women while “annihilated” at a popular nightclub.

There was also an infamous image of him, taken just days later, in a hot tub with three topless women, including one that looked like then-girlfriend, Song. (Song denied it was her, saying: “My eyes don’t look like that, and I have bigger breasts.”)

Forman alleges in the lawsuit that she was invited by English to a dinner party in a loft in April 2015 where he “forcibly kissed [her] multiple times in the kitchen,” and she “expressly told him to stop and reminded him that his partner, Wenjie Song, was also at the dinner party,” the suit alleges. “English did not care.”

The suit alleges that Song “insisted” on going to drinks after the party, and the pair took Forman to a strip club where they bought her a lap dance against her will.

It also claims the “flashing lights and loud music from the strip club triggered Ms. Forman’s brain trauma and caused her to have a migraine.”

She alleges she was “totally debilitated by pain,” and went back to the loft with English and Song to go to sleep. 

“While Ms. Forman was trying to fall asleep, English and Song piled into bed with her. Song then climbed on top of English and began kissing him and touching him sexually, clearly trying to engage in group sex with Ms. Forman,” the suit alleges. “Ms. Forman expressed that she was too tired to interact with them and fell asleep.”

After waking the next morning, she alleges that she felt “disoriented and off-kilter,” and returned home to find she had been “horrifically abused.”

“There were six gaping holes in her left forearm; the skin surrounding the holes in her arm was black and dead,” the suit alleges, which includes pictures of her arm with what resemble cigarette burns on it.

“Ms. Forman could see the heinous wounds but did not have any sensation of feeling on her left forearm. Ms. Forman also realized that she had suffered a painful vaginal tear that did not exist prior to her waking up in the loft,” the suit alleges.

The papers claim she confronted English who did not answer her questions, but allegedly told her Song “does not smoke.” 

She has suffered “permanent nerve damage,” according to the suit.

Forman went to a dermatologist who diagnosed her with “third-degree burns.” A neurologist told her that the only way she would not have woken up when being burned that badly was if she “had been intensely drugged to the point of losing consciousness,” the suit claims.

A rep for English denies the claims.

“All of allegations in this complaint against our client chef Todd English are truly absurd and laughable,” says the statement. “This is a frivolous money grab that’s going nowhere, anyone who actually cares to read the complaint can see it clearly.”

Page Six was unable to reach Song.

Forman had first met English in 2006 and they had previously consensually kissed. She had cut off contact in 2008, but reconnected with English in 2015, according to court papers.

Forman’s 2011 equestrian accident left her with a “traumatic brain injury with significant functional limitations in cognition, emotion and associated severe visual disturbance,” the filing alleges. “As a result, Ms. Forman has lifelong impairments in conceptual thinking, working memory, and learning and processing speed.”

Following the passing of the Adult Survivors Acts, which temporarily suspended the statute of limitations, Forman went to the cops with images and her underwear from that night, but nothing came of it, the filing alleges.

She is seeking monetary damages. 

Wigdor Partner, Meredith A. Firetog, who is representing Forman tells us, “We are determined to hold him accountable.”

English has made headlines before outside the kitchen. In 2017, English and members of his Plaza Hotel Food Hall were accused of sexual harassment.

In 2015, his lawyers had sued him to collect a bill of over $270,000. 

In 2014, he was arrested for drunk driving in the Hamptons and later attended and outpatient rehab program.

He also lost control of his Union Square restaurant Olives after allegedly displaying “erratic behavior,” and “going off the rails,” Page Six reported at the time.