Entertainment

‘MasterChef’ judge’s copycat lawsuit

Another judge on “MasterChef” — Chicago celebrity chef Graham Elliot — is on the frying pan.

Graham is being sued by a former waiter who claims he denied the waiter minimum wage in a dispute over tips.

Joe Bastianich, the New York restaurateur who is also a judge on the hit summer show along with Gordon Ramsay, settled a similar waiters’ suit here last week for a whopping $5.25 million.

That case had to do with the so-called “cutting of tip pools at eight restaurants he owns with Mario Batali.

Elliot’s Chicago eateries are favorites of President Obama and Oprah.

The waiter, identified as Gregory Curtis, claims he should not have been forced to share tips with other workers if Elliot’s restaurant was going to pay him only $4.95 a hour — the state minimum wage for tipped employees.

The practice has been ended, the waiter’s lawyer says. But now the restaurant owes workers back wages for the time they were underpaid.