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Todd English and Erica Wang. Photo: David X Prutting, PatrickMcMullan.com

Todd English is speaking out for the first time since calling off his wedding to Erica Wang.

"I couldn't go through with it," the 49-year-old chef of Olives told People. "I thought I'd met my partner, but as things progressed [it] went down hill."

English has appeared on "Iron Chef America" and PBS's "Cooking Under Fire."

In the People interview, English accused his jilted fiancee of "physical and verbal abuse" and allegedly hitting him in the eye in September. The New York Post reports Thursday that English visited a New York City police precinct to report the allegations.

But she denied the abuse allegations to the New York Post earlier this week, telling the paper that English has left her without a job (she was his personal assistant) and an apartment, and forced her to pay $12,000 for wedding expenses.

"An animal wouldn't treat another animal the way he has treated me," Wang told the Post. "He is forgetting I am human. I don't deserve this. He has caused me, my friends and family so much pain."

Slashfood reported on Oct. 5 that Wang had thrown a party despite the nuptials being called off.

[Via People, New York Post]

 According to a study that was just released, Britons eat the most chocolate per capita, of anyone in the world. The average consumption is about 22 pounds per person. This can be compared to rates of 17.8-lbs per person in Germany, 15-lbs in France, 8.5-lbs in Spain and 4.8-lbs in Italy. The same study also showed that Germans preferred boxed chocolate treats and the French preferred molded chocolate bars. The British seemed to like anything made of milk chocolate, as only 3% of the chocolate consumption was of the dark variety!

For contrast, Americans eat about 12 pounds of chocolate per person per year. Like the British, they prefer milk chocolate to other varieties, though the interest in darker chocolates is steadily increasing. This is most likely a combination of the much-touted health benefits of dark chocolate and simply a greater availability of high-quality dark chocolates that American are developing an appreciation for.

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