Kim Kardashian and Jonathan Cheban (also known as Foodgod) are still fast friends, despite any online speculation.
“People post me in things and people say that Kim and I aren’t friends anymore and it’s so funny to watch this stuff ‘cause we are friends and we talk all the time,” Cheban, 51, exclusively told Us Weekly at the grand opening of Planet Hollywood in New York City on Tuesday, March 11. “I see all these things that pop up and that’s how I know if I’m on [episodes of The Kardashians] or not.”
While Cheban admitted that he doesn’t always keep up with Kardashian’s Hulu docuseries, they are “absolutely” still close pals.
“We’re going to be friends forever — and it’s fun,” Cheban said. “I mean, she’s got so many kids and so many things to do and I’m all the way on this coast, so it’s like, yeah, we don’t see each other as much, but we talk all the time and anything happens that I feel like we should discuss, we just send it right away.”
Kardashian, 44, lives in Los Angeles with her and ex-husband Kanye West’s four children. Cheban, meanwhile, resides on the East Coast and travels “all the time” between the likes of Italy, California and more. Most recently, he relocated to New York City, where he attended the opening of Planet Hollywood in Times Square.
Jonathan ‘Foodgod’ Cheban attends the grand opening of the new Planet Hollywood NYC on March 11, 2025. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Planet Hollywood
“This is pretty iconic,” he gushed on Tuesday. “Not only is the weather amazing, I mean, this is such a major thing to happen in New York [and] for a New York comeback. I’m moving back to New York after five years. I’m so excited to be here, this is awesome.”
Ahead of the event, Cheban was especially hopeful that the Planet Hollywood menu would feature one specific offering.
There’s nothing like a celebrity endorsement to boost a restaurant’s exclusivity and generate word-of-mouth buzz. Take New York City’s The Corner Store, for example, where visits from Blake Lively, Taylor Swift and more A-listers shortly after their opening in fall 2024 made this SoHo spot one of the hardest reservations to get in the city. […]
“Well, hopefully, there’s the usual [and] hopefully they made a smash burger because [it’s] 2025. I don’t want the old burgers,” he quipped. “I want some new stuff. And if they didn’t, I’m going to find [CEO] Robert Earl and I’m going to tell him.”
Cheban is famously a major foodie, who has chronicled his global dietary adventures on both his Discovery+ series, Foodgod, and via social media.
“I feel like my Instagram and my TikTok is bigger than pretty much every show,” Cheban told Us. “You get a million [or] 2 million views and that is a TV show. And you kind of control it because when you do a TV show, it takes a very long time [that] people don’t know. By the time you film it [and] by the time it comes out and by the time it airs, you spent a year and a half doing it and then it ends really fast so you better know what you’re doing.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
