“I stated, ‘Are you Dan Kaufman?’” Leong states. “He stated, ‘Yes, i will be.’ He stated cocaine had done a number that he was a reformed person on him, and. He stated, ‘I’m gonna modification, we swear.’” Astonishingly, Leong kept dating him. Dan had convinced her that, despite their initial lie while the Busy Chef crimes, he had been still a world-class restaurateur, friend of Gordon Ramsay, and so forth. In reality, it would appear that there is certainly a proper Dan Kay whose qualifications fall into line using the lies Kaufman told about himself, though it is difficult to split out of the real Kay’s electronic path from Kaufman’s many online smokescreens. This Chefolio profile for Dan Kay, as an example, which cites experience at Boston’s Legal Seafood, the Rainbow area, and collaborations with Todd English, seems to be fake; it cites an interview that is non-existent the brand new York frequent News. You can find array other entries like these on different meals internet web sites, most likely developed by Kaufman to bolster his fantasies.

But Kay the Hell’s Kitchen producer is just a person that is real. IMDB credits his part on that show andChopped, the latest York days reported he is described as a chef and restaurant consultant that he was a chef at Chelsea’s Elmo, and in this story from the Colombian. I became struggling to achieve the genuine Daniel Kay, who not any longer works at Elmo.

Leong proceeded dating Dan “because [she] was bored,” she claims. “I’m a masochist. He had been a total dork. He wore the clothes that are same day—madras shorts and flip-flops—and constantly discussed himself.” He regaled her along with his exploits as a professional surfer, skier, and snowboarder. He informed her he had attended college in Vermont for a scholarship, and revealed her a photo associated with sizable beachfront home on Martha’s Vineyard he advertised to own been raised in.

Though she nevertheless thought he had been a cook, Leong quickly began to suspect that Dan ended up being embellishing from the information on their life. She knew some users of Slapshot, as an example, and discovered it tough to think she hadn’t heard their name relating to the musical organization. (“He didn’t also possess an electric guitar,” she said.) He informed her he had landed work as administrator chef at Bluefin, a seafood and sushi restaurant in the days Square W resort.

This post originally appeared at Gawker.

But he additionally had constant problems that are financial. “He called me freaking away as soon as because some girl he’d gone on holiday with was harassing him on Facebook, saying he’d promised to settle each one of these costs on her behalf United states Express card. He said, I going to do?’” Leong didn’t help him out‘ I can’t pay my rent, what am.

On labour Day weekend 2010, Dan told Leong he couldn’t be along with her because he had intends to go surfing in Montauk with Johnny Iuzzini, the judge of Top Chef: Just Desserts and executive pastry chef at Jean-Georges. Whenever she talked to him the very next day, though, Dan wasn’t in Montauk. Iuzzini had been unwell, he stated, and had cancelled. Then she checked in on Eater.com, and read that Iuzzini had been spending the vacation in Spain. He’d been posting travel pictures to his blog.

Briefly thereafter, Leong chose to phone Dan at your workplace. There was clearly no Dan Kay whom worked at Bluefin, she ended up being told. To their next date that is scheduled she proposed a test: Why don’t you get shopping and cook me supper? Dan purchased porterhouse steaks, Brussels sprouts, mushrooms. Leong taken care of the food. They went returning to his apartment. “It was like a frat boy cooking dinner,” she said. The previous Rainbow Room cook and two-time James Beard nominee served her an oven-baked porterhouse steaks that he hadn’t troubled to sear and raw Brussels sprouts, tossed haphazardly on a dish. She says“ he didn’t have any professional cooking gear, and his pantry was all canned food.

Leong never ever saw him once more. She discovered that Dan had stolen $40 from her the night before when she looked in her wallet the next day . She later discovered that Kay have been dating at the least two other women he entirely on OkCupid in the time that is same including person who she happened to learn. Dan told that specific girl that he had been “working at a technology task that offered database help for substance abuse outreach.” He additionally went because of the true title Dan Katze, Leong discovered. whenever Leong Googled a number of the quotes that Dan had posted she realised he had lifted them directly from Anthony Bourdain about himself on his OkCupid profile.

Without OkCupid serving up a reliable blast of eager, algorithmically chosen markings, needless to say, Dan might have had a significantly less exciting life that is dating. Considering that the web site allowed him to determine a profile under a false name, OkCupid ended up being the perfect location without a criminal background check or a Google search getting in the way for him to market himself. (Though Leong quickly discovered Dan’s real identification and stuck around anyway, we talked to many other women that had fallen hard and really miss the “Dan Kay” line.)

Men being what they are, instances of frauds making use of online dating sites to get vulnerable ladies are perennial sufficient to have ignited a debate about whether or not web sites should always be forced to do background that is criminal on users. A brand new Jersey law passed in 2008 needs such web web sites to at least disclose if they do (real.com could be the just prominent website that currently works them). Such a necessity might have avoided convicted murderer Abraham Fortune of utilizing Match.com to get feamales in San Antonio, Texas. It most likely wouldn’t have placed a damper in the exploits of Jeffrey Marsalis, the Philadelphia man who was simply accused of serially drugging and raping significantly more than 10 ladies he discovered through Match.com. Marsalis, a medical student, told their so-called victims he was a traumatization surgeon, CIA agent, veteran, and astronaut trainee. But he didn’t have criminal background whenever he began scouting victims on Match.