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So apparently Todd English is still involved with MXDC, after all? Back in December, Eater reported the celebrity chef had issued a press release declaring that he would no longer be associated with the Mexican restaurant owned by Aziz Safi after the end of his consultancy.
“Aziz and I have been friends for a long time and I have no doubt he will continue to ‘wow’ Washingtonians with MXDX and Chef [JC] Pavlovich,” English said in the press release. “But my goal right now is to keep focused on our core restaurant brands.”
A spokesperson for English also confirmed to Eater at that time that the consultancy had ended and that English was no longer associated with MXDC. Still, the chef’s name remained on the restaurant’s website.
But now English seems to be back. In fact, the chef was at the restaurant yesterday to promote a new taco Tuesday happy hour.
“It was a huge mix-up,” says the restaurant’s local publicist, Erika Gutierrez,via email. She says she was unaware that English’s team had sent out the press release until Eater contacted her. “When we reached out to Todd and his team, they said they never sent a press release out and that it must have been some sort of ‘mistake.’ It was very odd.” That press release is still online.
English’s team tells the story a little differently: “It was a three-month consulting situation and we were going to pretty much be done with the restaurant at that point,” says English’s spokeswoman Lindsey Valdez. “But they’ve asked him to stay on, so we’re going to go back out and work on some spring initiatives.” Valdez didn’t answer any questions about the press release, saying she didn’t personally send it out.
Hm, ok.
Photo by Jessica Sidman