Chef Charged With Indecent Exposure at Women's Event

Someone should tell Mike Ray that if he wants to be the "life of the party," he should try wearing a lampshade on his head, not dropping trou. At least not at an event for women-owned businesses, which is where WYFF reports the South Carolina chef allegedly decided it would be fun Friday night to let his pants fall to his ankles in front of three female attendees. Per police, Ray, who owns Charleston's One Broad Street restaurant and the Normandy Farm Artisan Bakery, exposed his "buttocks and genitalia," with his naked rear "approximately 5 inches from [one woman's] pelvic region," per the Post and Courier. "We felt very disrespected, and embarrassed for our clientele," says Erin Reitz, the event organizer. Ray's take on his "attempt" at being the "life of the party": It "didn't go over so well."

"I had a horrible lapse in judgment," he acknowledged. In the meantime, the chef was on Wednesday hit with indecent exposure charges, and he's stepping away from day-to-day involvement at his businesses for now to seek counseling. He says he's already said he was sorry to the women he allegedly flashed, but Reitz tells WYFF the only person she's heard he talked to was her husband. Some say counseling isn't enough, especially as the Post and Courier notes his "longstanding keenness for defying social norms," e.g., he once is said to have posted a pic of himself posing with a "giant bread penis." (Read a story about pants dropping over ... onions?)