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‘Chopped’ winner fired cook for taking care of dying wife: lawsuit

A winning chef on the Food Network reality TV contest “Chopped” eliminated a night cook from his staff at a Manhattan boutique hotel while the Staten Island dad was caring for his dying wife, the grieving man says in a new lawsuit.

Robert Esselborn claims hotheaded chef Anthony Paris broke federal law by slashing his job while he was on Family Medical Leave, according to the Manhattan civil suit.

The former Army instructor-turned-cook requested time off from his job at the luxe Crosby Street Hotel on Dec. 15, 2013, after his wife of 17 years suffered a stroke.

“The Esselborn family was in a total state of shock and turmoil,” according to the father of two’s wrongful termination suit.

Chef Robert EsselbornCourtesy

“He needed to care for his wife and children. He also needed to make critical decisions about how to medically care for his wife and what her wishes would be under the circumstances,” his suit says.

Four days later, while his spouse was on life support, Paris emailed Esselborn demanding a date when he could return to work.

When the cook said he would reassess the situation on Jan. 1, Paris fired him, saying the wait was “too long” and ordered him to clean out his workplace locker even though a human resources director had approved his leave, according to court papers.

His wife, Barbara, died the next day.

“Then I heard nothing,” Esselborn told The Post. “No card, nothing, just ‘Turn in your key and have a nice day.’”

Federal law allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for sick family.

Chef Anthony ParisLinkedIn

The cook, who put in 20 years of service in the Army as a weapons instructor, accuses Paris of “willfully” failing to tell the human resources department that he was taking medical leave “in an effort to retaliate against Esselborn for exercising his federally protected right.”

Esselborn attended the same training academy as his former boss — New York’s Institute of Culinary Education — and put in over 200 hours for an internship with Paris at The Crosby in Soho, he told The Post.

He had been working at the hotel restaurant for a year when he was fired.

The ousted cook is seeking unspecified damages.

Paris skirted the chopping block and won the Food Network’s 2010 contest.

He trained at Jean Georges and opened Fatty Crab with restaurateur Zak Pelaccio.

Reached at The Crosby kitchen, Paris declined to comment. A rep for the hotel also declined to comment.