VPR stars Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney’s sandwich shop chef has ‘proof’ she is partner in company

VPR stars Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney’s sandwich shop chef has ‘proof’ she is partner in company
VPR stars Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney’s sandwich shop chef has ‘proof’ she is partner in company after they oust her
Vanderpump Rules stars Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney's sandwich shop chef has spoken out in an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun.
Chef Penny Davidi has been an integral part of Something About Her since the beginning and has been featured on episodes of Vanderpump Rules with Ariana, 38, and Katie, 37.
In the April 30th episode, Lisa Vanderpump sat down with the two owners to get an update on the sandwich shop opening.
When the restaurateur brought up Chef Penny, 52, and said that she learned they weren't talking to her, Ariana revealed "there's a lot of missing pieces" to the story.
Katie explained, "She proposed she would like to be paid a salary and a percentage that she would want, and so we sent that to our lawyer."
Ariana added, "She receives a salary and then we offered, on the back end, 10% of profits from this location."
The Broadway star claimed that the celebrity chef wasn't going to be a partner despite her helping them create the West Hollywood shop's menu among other things.
"This isn't like the three of us as The Three Musketeers," Ariana said.
Meanwhile, Katie confessed to cameras: "We had originally brought penny on to be our COO (chief operating officer) and head of back of house, but we are having a little trouble seeing eye to eye in what her role will be in our business."
Now, in an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, Penny is sharing her side of the story after being "edited" out of the show over her reported falling out with the reality stars.
"Once they agree on email that they agree to my terms and that I should proceed with the work, the intent by California law, I'm a partner. I own 10% of that business," Penny shared.
"Ten percent of the entire brand and of the gross. I wasn't going to go do auditing on anybody [but] 10% of every time they took money out of the business, I would take money out of the business."
The Food Network chef went on to explain that she has email proof and text messages proving she was - and still is - a partner.
"We didn't sign a contract... There's an intent I sent them [and] they're like, 'Okay, just email us everything you want and we'll run it by our attorneys.'
"So I have the email. I sent them everything that I wanted, which was a monthly fee, and then the percentage of the entire Something About Her brand, not of one store," she continued.
Penny said that she never signed a contract because a) it took "months to get the first draft" from the girls' lawyer and b) the contract was not what they had agreed on.
"We get the first draft, and there's so much bulls**t in there that I was like, 'Wait a second, this is not what we agreed on,'" she spilled.
"They were like, 'Oh, we'll give you 10% of profits vested over three years,'" explaining she wouldn't be able to receive the 10% until three years have passed.
And another "unreasonable clause" she didn't agree on was that they stated they could "terminate the contract at any time with no cause," and she "would lose all her interest earned immediately."
Chef Penny confirmed that she was paid a chunk of money by the VPR stars - not as much as they made from selling merchandise, she claims - but did not say how much she is still owed.
WHAT WASN'T SHOWN
While this season of VPR showed Penny filming a few scenes with Ariana and Katie, such as interviewing prospective staff, the chef said that a lot of behind-the-scene interactions that were filmed did not make it on the Bravo show.
It all started when Lisa, who Penny claimed "didn't want anything to do with the business," connected her with the TV personalities.
"I was like, 'Yeah, I'm happy to jump in. I would love to be a part of this with you guys and really help you grow,'" she said.
"And then Ariana was like, 'We would love to be able to pay you. I'm sure you're worth a lot, but we just can't afford what it's going to cost right now, and maybe we can work out to give you a percentage of the business,' not a percentage of the profits of this little restaurant."
"So I said okay. We hugged, they filmed it, and great."
VPR viewers watched as Penny oversaw the recipes and even was there when the cast tasted the sandwiches she had curated.
Penny "dealt with everything with the city, with the landlord, getting the permits, doing all the sketching," and so forth, she claimed, and even "meet with people at 2am" in hopes of getting the Los Angeles eatery up and running.
She and her husband, Jonathan Lee Borsuk, helped file the trademark for Something About Her in August 2023 after they gave her the okay to fill out an application and proceed with the filing - as seen in a text message exchange from June 2023 (below) between her and Katie and Ariana.
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That’s so not fair