Juan-Carlos Cruz, 48, a former Food Network chef who hosted the show Calorie Commando from 2004-2007, is currently in jail awaiting $5 million bail. Cruz allegedly approached homeless men in the Santa Cruz, CA area with the prospect of killing his wife of over 30 years. Below is a report from CNN on this bizarre story, but TMZ has much more, including the detail that Cruz bought the homeless guys a cell phone and sent them semi-literate text messages. He also had the asinine idea to give the men ten $100 bills ripped in half (just $1,000) for their services, with the second halves of the bills to come after they’d committed the deed. Cruz text that he had “already been burned with whole bills then no show thats why [I will] do it this way.” The men quickly went to police with their story instead of just taking Cruz’s money like his former would-be hitmen.

A former Food Network chef accused of a murder-for-hire plot was “very meticulous,” but also “very cheap,” according to one of the three homeless men involved.

The plan fell apart when one of the homeless men who Juan-Carlos Cruz, the former host of “Calorie Commando,” allegedly recruited told Santa Monica Police, authorities said.

Cruz, 48, is being held on $5 million bail on a charge of solicitation to commit murder. He is expected to make a first appearance in court on Monday.

While Santa Monica Police released few details about the case, Sgt. Jay Trisler did confirm that three men interviewed by celebrity news and gossip website TMZ are the chief witnesses against Cruz.

The men — identified only as Big Dave, Little Dave and Shane — told TMZ that Cruz wanted them to kill his wife.

Little Dave said he was approached first and he immediately told his two friends Big Dave and Shane, who helped him communicate with Cruz.

Little Dave told a Santa Monica Police officer about the plot after he was arrested for loitering, he said.

“We’re very fortunate that we have a relationship and rapport with some of the homeless and that they were able to give us information,” Trisler said.

Santa Monica police began their undercover investigation of Cruz on May 7, Trisler said.

Cruz was arrested at a dog park in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles Thursday afternoon, Trisler said.

Big Dave, Little Dave and Shane got a place to stay during the week the investigation was under way. Santa Monica Police put them in a hotel room to keep them out of sight, Big Dave said.

“They gave us two pizzas, a 12-pack of beer and a bottle of San Jose,” he said. “I love them.”

Cruz, a Los Angeles resident, was an overweight pastry chef at Hotel Bel Air until he changed his focus to promote low-calorie recipes.

When his “Calorie Countdown” show debuted on the Food Network in 2004, he said he had lost 100 pounds by eating his own cooking.

He wrote “The Juan-Carlos Cruz Calorie Countdown Cookbook: A 5-Week Eating Strategy for Sustainable Weight Loss,” which was published in 2007.

[From CNN]

Ironically, Cruz has a co-written a book that’s scheduled to come out in June called The Love Diet. Its tagline is “Eat it up, take if off, get it on,” and Cruz touts his long marriage as evidence that the recipes have aphrodisiac qualities. Cruz used to be a stout pastry chef before losing 280 pounds through lower-calorie cooking. On a blog for The Love Diet, Cruz’s co-author claims that once Cruz lost the weight “his sex life heated up and the Food Network came calling.” Only now Cruz has completely ruined his future career prospects with a cheap lame scheme to have his wife offed by homeless guys. At least the homeless guys got a roof over their heads and some food for their trouble. Cruz got some free publicity for his book, too. He’ll soon be on mess hall duty in prison and I doubt he’ll have any watercress to cook with.