Ex-BA worker blasts Balthazar owner Keith McNally as ‘misogynistic and vile’ amid James Corden row

A former BA flight attendant has blasted Balthazar owner Keith McNally as ‘misogynistic and vile’ after the celebrity restaurateur dragged her into his squabble with James Corden.

Ellie Toyn, 28, hit out at McNally after he used a picture of her in an Instagram post about how an unrelated BA crew member had told him on a flight from New York to London that she was not a fan of Corden.

McNally wrote that the unnamed BA flight attendant had leaned over to him ten minutes before landing and whispered, ‘I never cared for James Corden either’ amid the now infamous row over an omelette.

McNally had used a close-up image of Ellie in her uniform smiling as she worked onboard an aircraft to illustrate the Monday morning post, prompting the former BA flight attendant to hit out at the British restaurateur and brand him as ‘misogynist and a hypocrite’. 

Ellie told MailOnline: ‘This is vile behaviour. It’s horrendous. I’m shocked and disgusted. 

‘He’s having a drama with James Corden and he’s used my face as a cover for it. I obviously did not consent to him using it and manipulating the story with me being the face of it.’

Ellie only realised that her image had been used after she was alerted by her shocked father that he had seen her photograph on the Tuesday evening TV news in an item about the row between Corden and McNally.

McNally swiftly apologised and deleted his Instagram post on Tuesday night, after Ellie screenshotted it and called him out for being ‘completely thoughtless’.

McNally had posted the dig at Corden on Monday morning (LA time) hours before the British comedian made a public apology on his Late Late Show on Monday night for berating staff at his New York City restaurant Balthazar.

Corden told viewers that he was ‘rude’ to the server after his wife Julia Carey, 46, found a bit of egg white in her egg yolk omelette at Balthazar.

But Corden had denied McNally’s version of events, insisting he did not ‘yell like crazy’ and claimed for the first time that the reason why he was so upset was that his wife was given food she is ‘seriously allergic’ to.

Balthazar staff responded to Corden’s attempt to explain the situation, telling DailyMail.com the British comedian is simply ‘very, very rude.’

McNally had used a close-up image of Ellie in her uniform smiling as she worked onboard an aircraft to illustrate the post, which was posted on Monday (LA time), prompting the former BA flight attendant to hit out at the British restaurateur and brand him as ‘misogynist and a hypocrite’

Ellie only realised that her image had been used after she was alerted by her shocked father that he had seen her photograph on the Tuesday evening TV news (pictured) in an item about the row between Corden and McNally

Balthazar owner Keith McNally (pictured) said that a BA flight attendant flagged him down to say she’s not a fan of the British comedian either

Corden made a public apology on his Late Late Show on Monday night for berating staff at McNally’s New York City restaurant Balthazar 

Before Corden’s on-air apology, McNally had posted about how a flight attendant had hovered over him for five hours – so close that it became ‘quite weird’ – before he discovered her reason was that she had recognized him and wanted to tell him that she wasn’t a fan of Corden.

But McNally has been criticized for using a picture of Ellie to make a dig at Corden, with the former flight attendant accusing him of being ‘vile’.

Ellie said: ‘It makes it look like I was really flirting with him and over the top when I wasn’t even there.’

She added: ‘The way he used the picture it’s as if he had taken it himself and suggested I was the flight attendant who was very over attentive and then whispered in his ear something about James Corden.

‘At the very least it was incredibly thoughtless.’

The photograph McNally used in his Instagram post was taken three years ago to commemorate British Airways’ centenary.

Ellie and her mother Donna, who had worked for the airline for more than 30 years, were among three teams of mothers and daughters who crewed a flight from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur as part of the 100 year celebrations in October 2019.

Ellie added: ‘It’s really degrading to think he has gone online and used my picture without consent or anything.

‘I’ve been misrepresented and that’s the most scary thing.

‘He’s in this thing with James Corden at the moment and I think to use my face in his game – it’s just not good enough. 

‘I haven’t been following it that closely but this is something between two high profile people that is so petty and other people are getting dragged into it.’

Ellie told MailOnline: ‘This is vile behaviour. It’s horrendous… I’m shocked and disgusted. ‘He’s having a drama with James Corden and he’s used my face as a cover for it.’

Ellie screenshotted McNally’s since deleted post and wrote on Instagram: ‘Tell me how it’s okay for this man to use an image of me without my consent in his drama with James Corden.’

Ellie added: ‘He’s undermined his whole position. If he’s taken his stand against James Corden who was being rude to people who were working very hard and doing their best.

‘That’s all well and good if you are going to stand up for your staff about that behaviour but you shouldn’t do it at the expense of somebody else – he’s just as bad.

‘On this occasion he’s doing exactly the same.

‘He has nearly 100,000 followers and some of them are quite high profile, people like Gordon Ramsay.’

Ellie continued: ‘I still have a lot of friends at BA who are very shocked. It’s misogynistic behaviour. It’s offensive to me but it is also generally offensive to women.

‘Some of the comments people were writing on the post were equally as awful. They were saying they hoped he married me or got my number or had joined the Mile High Club.

‘I think that’s so degrading towards me but also towards other flight attendants.

‘People should be aware what a hypocrite he is. He’s stereotyping flight attendants and he’s used that to help his story which is not right.

‘Being a flight attendant is one of the hardest jobs out there. I did it for three years and my mum did it her whole career. He didn’t take into account how much damage that post would do.’

Ellie quit the airline industry over a year ago to open a tattoo studio with boyfriend Alex Lloyd, 29, in Godalming, Surrey.

She said of McNally: ‘He had no idea what position I am in at the moment. It could have been so much worse for me.

‘I’m lucky that I work for myself. If I was still working for an airline, if I was still working for BA, I would have been in a whole heap of trouble. I feel like I would have been marched into an office and asked what I was playing at.

‘If I worked for another airline or any other employer, I think my integrity would have been questioned and that’s something I pride myself on.

‘To bring that into question is an abuse of his power. It’s scary what people can post about you like this. It is thoughtless and I think it is just appalling.’

Corden and his wife Julia eating at Scott’s in London in 2018. He said his wife told staff politely that she had a ‘serious food allergy’ 

Corden’s wife ordered the Omelette with Herbs but requested it be cooked using only egg yolks and no egg whites

Ellie was alerted to McNally’s post at about 7.30pm on Tuesday (UK time) after her father had seen her photograph on the early evening TV news in an item about the row between Corden and McNally. 

She said: ‘My picture has been on ITV and Channel 4 News, people have taken screenshots of my picture.

‘My dad was watching the news on Tuesday evening and called me saying’ Your face is on the news, what’s going on?’

‘People have been messaging me and my mum and my dad asking how I was involved in this.

‘I run my own business now. It has nothing to do with me.’

McNally has deleted his post and went on to issue an apology to Ellie on her Instagram account, which has just over 2,700 followers, after friends rallied around her.

He wrote on her account: ‘My sincere apologies. I just wanted to use a random photo of a BA airline attendant to illustrate an incident that recently happened to me flying BA.

‘I didn’t mean to offend you. My post certainly wasn’t about you personally. I just deleted the post. Again, my apologies.’

But Ellie said: ‘The damage has already been done. He’s on a global scale. Compared with him I’m tiny. There are possibly millions of people who saw that without me even knowing about it.

‘He’s obviously a big figure in his industry. He owns a load of restaurants and is high profile.

‘For someone of his standing he has a responsibility to be genuine with what he posts and he has clearly gone against that and it’s really upsetting.

‘He has apologised on my Instagram now. I appreciate the apology but that post was on there for well over a day, so many people have seen it. I don’t think that makes up for what he’s done.’

McNally wrote on Instagram of the attendant during the flight: ‘I only had to move a fraction in my seat and she’d come running over. Then I discovered her reason.

‘Ten minutes before landing, she leaned into me conspiratorially and whispered, ‘I never cared for James Corden either’.’

McNally had uploaded the post early on Monday morning (LA time) but it was deleted the following evening – after Corden publicly apologized on his Late Late Show on Monday night for the omelette saga. 

Corden told viewers he had been ungracious’ to a restaurant server in an incident which saw him temporarily banned from Balthazar.

The infamous omelette saga began on October 9 when Corden and his wife Julia dined at the restaurant with friends. Julia asked for an all-yolk omelette – something that is not on the extensive brunch menu.

When it arrived, the dish contained some egg whites. Corden sent it back to the kitchen and when it was returned, he says it was still ‘wrong’.

Corden apologized for being ‘ungracious’ to the waiter when he snapped at him and made a snide remark that he’d cook the egg yolk omelette himself. 

Addressing the issue for the first time Corden denied McNally’s version of events, insisting he did not ‘yell like crazy’ and claimed the reason why he was so upset was that his wife was given food she is ‘seriously allergic’ to.

He said his remarks had been ‘in the heat of the moment’ and promised he would ‘apologise in person’ to the member of staff.

Balthazar owner Keith McNally forgave Corden on Tuesday after his on-air apology 

Corden’s rude behavior saw McNally ban Corden from the restaurant briefly but the restaurant owner said on Tuesday afternoon that he had forgiven Corden and lifted his restaurant ban. 

‘It takes a real man to do this. In the past, I’ve behaved much worse than Corden but wasn’t man enough to apologize. For this reason, I’m going to lift the ban on Corden,’ McNally said on Tuesday.

McNally added that he was going to ban himself from Balthazar for two weeks in an attempt to bring his dispute with Corden to a close. 

He wrote: ‘I’m going to ban myself from Balthazar for two weeks. People who live in glass houses…’

In an exchange with followers he added: ‘I regret the whole thing’.

But Balthazar staff have mocked Corden’s attempt to explain away his omelette tantrum on Monday night by claiming he was worried about his wife’s ‘serious’ egg allergy, saying the comic is simply ‘very, very rude’ and shouldn’t have ordered the dish.

‘I’m sorry but that is bulls**t,’ one server, who declined to be named, told DailyMail.com.

The mid-week breakfast menu at Balthazar. There are only two omelet options on this menu and on the brunch menu, which Corden ordered from. Both contain egg whites 

There are only two omelettes on the menu at the famous New York City eatery; the $25 Omelette with Herbs, and the $27, Egg-White Omelette. Both come with a side of home fries or salad.

The servers explained that Corden was asking for something that is not offered, and was angry when it wasn’t up to his standards.

‘He wanted an omelette that had only egg yolks. Not the egg-white omelette, just egg yolks.

‘Why then would you even bother ordering an omelette if you’re allergic to eggs?’ he asked.

There are plenty of egg-free options on the Balthazar Sunday brunch menu.

The staff at Balthazar suggested that the egg allergy was not the real reason for Corden’s outburst and that he had been rude to them in the past.

‘We deal with that kind of behavior from people all the time.

‘But he… he was very, very rude,’ George, one of the barmen, said.

The egg-white menu at Balthazar which is served with salad or home fries. Staff on Tuesday offered a complimentary glass of champagne when ordered. They previously told the owner that Corden began ‘yelling like crazy’ when Julia’s all-yolk omelette was brought out with home fries instead of salad

Some doctors advise that a person with an egg allergy can safely eat cooked egg yolks since yolks contain less protein than whites and are therefore less allergenic.

At the foot of the long breakfast and brunch menu is a note to inform diners that while ‘every effort will be made to accommodate food allergies, staff cannot always guarantee’ it will be possible.

In comparison to Corden’s pubic outburst at the restaurant, a female diner having brunch with her partner at the bar on Tuesday sent back her dish quietly.

She had ordered the egg-white omelette but was served the yolky alternative.

The server George apologized and promptly swapped them, insisting it was ‘entirely his fault’.

The woman gladly accepted the replacement.

McNally also owns Pastis, Minetta Tavern, and Morandi in the West Village – three well-known, well-respected New York institutions that are regularly frequented by celebrities.

He first shamed Corden on Instagram, telling his followers how the comedian had twice abused staff.

On the first occasion, he said Corden demanded free drinks for his entire table after finding a hair in his food, which McNally accepted was ‘diabolical’ but happens in most restaurants occasionally.

The brunch incident occurred on October 9. Julia ordered an all-yolk omelette – an uncommon request.

McNally’s original description makes no note of the egg-white allergy.

‘Mr. Corden’s wife ordered an egg yolk omelette with gruyere cheese and salad.

‘A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K. and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk. M. K. informed the floor manager, G.

‘The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad.

‘That’s when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: ‘You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!’

Corden on Monday night claimed he was calm, did not yell and therefore did not think he’d done anything wrong.

In an interview with The New York Times the day after McNally’s post, he said the subject was ‘beneath’ discussion.

‘I just think it’s beneath all of us. It’s beneath you. It’s certainly beneath your publication,’ he told the reporter.

Last night, he apologized on his show for being ‘snide’.

‘Because I didn’t shout or scream, I didn’t get up out of my seat, I didn’t call anyone names or use derogatory language, I have been walking around thinking that I’ve not done anything wrong.

‘But I have. I made a rude comment,’ he said, adding that he ‘values and respects’ anyone and everyone in the service industry.

Corden’s current contract with Viacom CBS for his Late Late Show expires next year.

He and his wife are selling their $9.7million home in Brentwood and are planning to return to the UK next year.