Celebrity NYC chef arrested for sex with a minor

A New York restaurant owner and celebrity TV chef was arrested Thursday for having sex with an underage Bronx boy in a Best Buy parking lot and boasting of an encounter with another boy, the Daily News reported.

Matthew Tivy, a 54-year-old chef who has appeared on the Food Network’s “Chef du Jour” and owns NYC’s Cafe du Soleil, also tried to recruit other adults for group sex with a 14-year-old boy from New Jersey, the Daily News stated, according to a criminal complaint in Manhattan Federal Court.

In addition to bragging about an encounter with the New Jersey boy, according to the Daily News, Tivy encouraged others to contact the juvenile for group sex, documents show. He also swapped videos with a 16-year-old living in Florida and had porn images of a 16-year-old living in Ohio, the complaint charges. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in the article that more victims may come forward. Tivy faces charges of sex with a minor and distributing child porn.

“It’s shocking. He seemed like such a nice guy, like an ordinary guy,” an employee who works in Tivy’s apartment building was quoted in the report.

At a hearing Thursday, Magistrate Judge Henry Pitman ordered that Tivy be held without bail because he presents a “danger to the community,” the Daily News stated, adding that Tivy’s attorney, Glenn Hardy, said his client is not guilty and attends regular therapy sessions.

“He certainly understood the gravity of the situation and is doing his best,” Hardy said in the article.