Independent bakery owner Rich Myers has roasted ITV bosses at The Voice for asking him for free food for high profile celebrity guests.
The Manchester based baker owns GET BAKED and is known for his world famous Bertha cake, which costs £20 for a massive slice that consists of 24 alternating layers of chocolate sponge and chocolate ganache.
And taking to Instagram, Rich, who has an impressive 361k Instagram followers, has branded ITV a ‘total disgrace’ after he was contacted by The Voice Team to supply free food for ‘dressing rooms and green rooms’.
Sharing the email from ITV, it read: ‘The Voice. I hope you’re well. My name is XXX and I’m working on ITV’s The Voice this year. We have a very high calibre of talent lined up for the show, along with our celebrity coaches who are soon to be revealed.
‘We start filming in a couple of months, and we are looking for amazing products to boost their long working days!
‘I wanted to reach out to you and ask if there would be anything you could help us with in terms of products for our talent dressing rooms and green rooms.
Independent bakery owner Rich Myers has roasted ITV bosses at The Voice for asking him for free food for high profile celebrity guests
Taking to Instagram Rich branded ITV a ‘total disgrace’ after he was contacted by The Voice Team to supply free food for ‘dressing rooms and green rooms’; pictured judges Danny Jones and Tom Fletcher
‘We’d love to open up the discussion and see if you’d be up for supplying your amazing products!
‘Unfortunately, we at ITV are unable to offer anything monetary or otherwise in return for your products but it you did agree to provide us with your products, it would have exposure to our highly influential coaches and presenters in the studios, as well as our contestants on the show, all of whom are incredibly talented.
‘Thank you for taking the time to read this request, and please do get in touch if this is an opportunity you might be interested in. Thanks, The Voice Team’.
Rich was left furious after reading the email and told Daily Mail: ‘In all seriousness, a conglomerate posting pre-tax profits of circa £350m asking for free cake from an independent bakery is an absolute disgrace, and should be made illegal.
‘I’ve never seen The Voice, but a quick search shows that their viewings have gone from 8.6million in 2015, to 2.8million in 2024. They can reach out to me if they want any marketing assistance, although that won’t be free either.’
Rich went on to share his email reply to ITV on Instagram, writing: ‘I must admit, I’m trying really hard not to bite at this stuff as of late, but on this occasion I simply cannot resist.
‘I’m not blaming you because I don’t doubt it’s obviously part of your job to send this email, but I would please ask that you tell the following people to f*** off on my behalf.
‘1. Your boss, 2. Your boss’s boss, 3. Your boss’s boss’s boss, 4. That’ll probably suffice, thanks Rich’.
Rich added in the caption: ‘I actually thought this was a wind up, but it’s totally real. ITV and Lifted Entertainment, you’re a total disgrace.
‘Honestly, how did we get here? Stop whatever this is because I wanna get off.’
He added: ‘I would like to clarify that I in no way blame the person that sent this email. Thanks. If you work somewhere corporate and they ask you to send these emails, tell them no, and find more suitable employment.’
Get Baked shut down from 2015 to 2021 but while working in a corporate sales job, Rich decided to make a comeback.
The bakery quickly re-established itself and used its previous style of edgy marketing, gaining worldwide attention for the sprinkles it used on its baked goods.
Get Baked has gone viral multiple times on social media for their impressive £20 Bertha cake and also sells a variety of baked goods including banoffee pie, lemon meringue pie, biscoff pie, which all cost £7 each.
The bakery also provides a number of different flavour brownies from salted caramel or peanut butter and jam for £4 each and a series of cookies for £3.50.
Rich has a store Get Baked in Northern Quarter, Manchester and buyers can also purchase the baked goods online for shipping nationwide across the UK.
The Daily Mail have contacted ITV and Get Baked representatives for comment.
ITV penned: ‘I wanted to ask if there would be anything you could help us with in terms of products for our talent. Unfortunately, we at ITV are unable to offer anything monetary or otherwise in return for your products’
Rich went on to share his email reply to ITV, which reads: ‘I’m not blaming you because I don’t doubt it’s obviously part of your job, but I would please ask that you tell [your boss] to f*** off’
Rich added to the comments: ‘I actually thought this was a wind up, but it’s totally real. ITV and Lifted Entertainment, you’re a total disgrace’
The Manchester based baker owns GET BAKED and is known for his famous Bertha cake, which costs £20 for a massive slice that consists of 24 layers of sponge and ganache
But if you think ITV’s attempts to secure a quick freebie are shameless, they are far from alone as there are hundreds of stars, including Mark Wright and wife Michelle Keegan, Stacey Solomon and Denise Van Outen, in the industry taking freebies. Read more here.
Earlier this year, Made In Chelsea star Binky Felstead was publicly called out by a bakery owner for seemingly asking for a free cake for her son Wilder’s third birthday in exchange for an Instagram post.
Reshmi Bennett, 42, who owns luxury cake business Anges de Sucre in London, has previously hit headlines over her fury at influencers requesting free cakes.
And her social media is full of posts from the baker making it clear she does not accept ‘exposure’ as payment.
But it seems her message was missed by Made In Chelsea star Binky – whose personal assistant asked Reshmi to make a cake for her youngest son Wilder’s third birthday.
Taking to Instagram, Reshmi shared a collection of screenshots showing Binky’s team requesting a ‘gifted’ yellow train cake with an ‘Instagram post collaboration’ in return.
Reshmi went as far as to make a spoof GoFundMe page asking for donations of £1.4million for the cake – in reference to celebrity Binky’s huge online follower count. She is also thought to have a net worth of £1.4million.
Initially when Reshmi shared the screenshots she had redacted Binky’s name from the emails – but ultimately named the star in a later post.
A representative for Binky told the Daily Mail: ‘This was a standard contra enquiry from Binky’s PA, offering social media exposure in exchange for a birthday cake.
‘Binky was not directly involved in these email exchanges, and is currently away on a family holiday. We completely understand that this type of collaboration is not for everyone and respect the decision to decline.
‘It is, however, disappointing to see a private and friendly enquiry shared publicly, and contra deals like this are widely used within this industry and usually mutually beneficial.’
The original form request sent to Reshmi’s business read: ‘Yellow train cake! We would also be interested in collaborating [redacted] who has 1.4million Instagram followers.’
In response to the request, Reshmi shared she had tried to convert it into a sale as she asked for the client’s budget, post code and image references.
But Binky’s team pushed back, replying: ‘Thanks for your message. Would you be interested in collaborating on the cake? As in the cake would be gifted in exchange for a story on [redacted]’s Instagram?’
Rather than opting for a ‘sassy’ response – which Reshmi said would be her typical approach – she instead expressed her disappointment and referenced Binky’s ‘wealth’ before suggesting it would be a better look for the reality star if she paid.
Binky’s team replied saying she had made ‘a valid point about optics’ and would speak to the star before coming back to Reshmi on whether they were happy to pay.
It was at this point that Reshmi took to Instagram to share screenshots of the communication between them.
She then received a ‘disheartened’ email from Binky’s team after they had seen her post – where they insisted the goal was never to ‘grab a free cake’.
Rich told Daily Mail: ‘In all seriousness, a conglomerate posting pre-tax profits of circa £350m asking for free cake from an independent bakery is an absolute disgrace, and should be made illegal’; pictured The Voice judge Tom Jones
‘I’ve never seen The Voice, but a quick search shows that their viewings have gone from 8.6m in 2015, to 2.8m in 2024. They can reach out to me if they want any marketing assistance, although that wont be free either’, he added; pictured host Emma Willis
They added: ‘Binky’s Instagram content is hugely focused around her children and she gets a lot of engagement from this sort of content so it can often have a very positive effect on businesses in terms of giving them exposure to audiences they may not be able to reach normally.’
Binky’s team finished the email by apologising for getting in contact as ‘this sort of partnership is not appreciated by you’ and insisting they meant no offence.
Binky is far from the only star to have asked for free cake in exchange for engagement.
Back in 2023 Catherine Tyldesley ended up cancelling her 40th birthday party after being ‘blindsided’ by online backlash surrounding a fierce row over free cake.
The former Coronation Street star had hired party planners NVRLND to manage the do, but they caused controversy by asking an independent bakery to make a large birthday cake, a smaller birthday cake for Tyldesley’s husband plus 100 cupcakes for free.
The company told Rebecca Severs of Three Little Birds Bakery that payment for the order would be ‘in the form of promotion’, but she hit back at the PR and declined the offer, saying her staff ‘can’t feed their kids with exposure on Instagram.’
Rebecca, from Keighley, shared a Facebook post with a screenshot of an email exchange between her bakery and the PR company which represented an unidentified ‘well-known’ celebrity asking for a cake for a 40th birthday party in September.
They also requested 100 cupcakes and an extra smaller birthday cake for her husband.
The founder of Three Little Birds Bakery wrote: ‘This poor celebrity apparently can’t afford to pay people for their products and services. Spare a thought! What happened to women supporting women.’
In response, Catherine shared a video saying: ‘Utterly bizarre. I don’t really know what to say. I mean I hope the cake lady got the exposure she was craving.’
Starting the video, the actress said: ‘Cake gate! WHAT!’
‘So I had no idea those emails were being sent. I’m not working with the lovely Ok magazine on anything that I’m aware of and NVRLND are an amazing company.
‘They’ve supplied me with performers in the past. They’re insane and they’ve been completely misrepresented in this matter.’
She went on to brand the scandal ‘utterly bizarre’ and suggested Rebecca was ‘seeking exposure’ with her Facebook post sharing the email.
The email from the celebrity management team, which was posted on Facebook by Rebecca this week, read: ‘We are organising a 40th Birthday Party for a well-known celebrity on the 1st of September 2023 in Manchester.
‘In return for being a supplier for the event, payment would be made in the form of promotion on their socials with over 700K followers, as well as promoted on OK Magazine.
‘They will be crediting all the suppliers on these platforms.’
It continued: ‘The party has a guest list full of celebrities and industry people from tv/film and music, so loads of work would come from it.’
The email went on to outline that the birthday theme has been designed with ‘pinks, sparkles and a touch of flamingos’.
They then requested one birthday cake with the theme ‘camp as tits’, as well as 100 cupcakes.
Finally, they asked for another, smaller, birthday cake because ‘it’s actually her husband’s birthday that day and we wanted to surprise him.’
But if you think ITV’s attempts to secure a quick freebie are shameless, they are far from alone as there are hundreds of stars, including Binky Felstead who was publicly called out by a bakery owner for seemingly asking for a free cake
Back in 2023 Catherine Tyldesley ended up cancelling her 40th birthday party after being ‘blindsided’ by online backlash surrounding a fierce row over free cake
In return, the small bakery would be rewarded ‘in the form of promotion on their [the celeb’s] socials with over 700k followers, as well as promoted in OK Magazine,’ while the party promised ‘a guest lists full of celebrities and industry people from TV / film and music, so loads of work would come from it’.
Rebecca did not know it was the former Strictly star and mum-of-two she would be providing for but it mattered not.
In a statement, Leeds-based event management firm NVRLND said its email had been ‘completely misconstrued’.
Founder Victoria Eames said: ‘NVRLND contacted Three Little Birds Bakery to offer them the opportunity to collaborate with one of our clients to cater for a party.
‘As part of the collaboration, our client would cover all of Three Little Birds Bakery’s expenses and costs in exchange for social media content and local and national exposure for their business. To confirm, NVRLND are also retained on the same expenses-only basis.
‘We selected Three Little Birds Bakery to collaborate with a view to support a local business and help them grow.
‘Our aim is to connect small local businesses with the opportunity of growth and the possibility of a full diary which is what we have experienced when working on past collaborations. We would never expect any business to be out of pocket and nor would our client.
‘Our email communication to Three Little Birds has unfortunately been completely misconstrued.
‘Due to contractual obligations, we are unable to comment on the identity of our client.’
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