{"id":134698,"date":"2026-02-15T22:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134698\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T22:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:55:09","slug":"long-island-chef-francis-derby-worked-for-epstein-doj-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/134698\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island chef Francis Derby worked for Epstein: DOJ files"},"content":{"rendered":"

A hotshot Long Island chef\u00a0worked as Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s personal cook<\/a>\u00a0and made multiple trips to the pedophile\u2019s private island, according to newly released government files.<\/p>\n

Francis Derby was employed as Epstein\u2019s high-flying private chef from May to November 2012 \u2014 satisfying his boss\u2019s insatiable appetite for \u201cjerky\u201d \u2014 before becoming the top cook at New York City\u2019s now-closed meat hotspot \u201cThe Cannibal,\u201d according to hundreds of emails recently released by the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

Long Island chef Francis Derby was Epstein\u2019s cook from May to November 2012. Facebook\/John P. Nieves<\/p>\n

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. HANDOUT<\/p>\n

Derby, who appears in the Epstein files more than 1,300 times, is now back working on Long Island at the ritzy\u00a0Halyard Restaurant in Greenport.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are no indications in the messages that Derby was aware of any wrongdoing, and the chef has denied all knowledge of Epstein\u2019s illicit activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn May 2012, I was hired as a cook for Jeffrey Epstein,\u201d Derby told The Post in a statement. \u201cAt the time I accepted the position, I had no knowledge of who Mr. Epstein was and was unaware of any allegations of misconduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role was to procure food, plan meals, and provide culinary service.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy responsibilities were in the kitchen,\u201d he said. \u201cMy only time outside the kitchen was serving meals in the dining room and staff quarters, and I was directed to avoid common areas. I left the position of my own accord in November 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epstein had been a convicted felon<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0registered sex-offender<\/a>\u00a0since 2008. He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019.<\/p>\n

Derby worked on meal plans while toiling for Epstein.<\/p>\n

The DOJ files indicate that during Derby\u2019s work for the sex fiend, the chef\u00a0made multiple trips<\/a>\u00a0to Little St. James\u00a0at Epstein\u2019s behest in his capacity as private chef, which Epstein called \u201cLittle St. Jeff\u2019s\u201d \u2014 but which locals dubbed \u201cPedophile Island,\u201d\u00a0the Los Angeles Times has reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During his short time with Epstein, Derby sent a ton of emails to numerous redacted people about cooking, properly storing and transporting bizarre massive amounts of \u201cjerky\u201d for his boss.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Epstein] said he was gonna start eating regular food again so he might be eating less jerky,\u201d Derby wrote in\u00a0an email<\/a>\u00a0in October 2012.<\/p>\n

Derby remarked that his boss may cut back on the \u201cjerky\u201d and start eating \u201cregular food\u201d again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said he has 6 bags of it in the downstairs freezer for his next trip. I believe it should be enough to get him through,\u201d the chef said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That same month, Epstein\u00a0wrote to Derby<\/a>\u00a0complaining about the lack of jerky, telling the chef, \u201cI only eat one thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another email claimed Epstein \u2014 who\u00a0compared the taste of babies to cream cheese<\/a>\u00a0with his associates in a previous exchange \u2014 went through more than\u00a070 pounds of jerky<\/a>\u00a0in a span of a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0another email thread<\/a>, a message from a redacted person asked Derby if he would be willing to teach others how to make his famous jerky before his last day on the job, to which the chef responds that he\u2019d be willing to teach a class if Epstein agrees to a give him an extra paycheck.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hotshot Long Island chef\u00a0worked as Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s personal cook\u00a0and made multiple trips to the pedophile\u2019s private island,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57274,6769,776,57,9,11,10,57275,7485,773],"class_list":["post-134698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cannibalism","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-long-island","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-satanism","tag-sex-trafficking","tag-suffolk-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}