Food Network star and “Iron Chef America” host Alton Brown apologized Wednesday after making “flippant” remarks about the Holocaust on Twitter.
Brown, who became a celebrity chef as host and creator of “Good Eats,” claims he was commenting on the current political climate and that the Holocaust references were not for “humorous effect.”
According to screenshots circulating online of now deleted tweets from Tuesday night, the television personality made references to being moved to camps and asked if there will be striped uniforms “like the ones at Auschwitz or will plaid be in vogue?” NBC News has not viewed the original tweets.
When one user replied to Brown to “take it easy,” Brown — in a tweet that has not been deleted as of Wednesday and was seen by NBC News — responded, “F— you.”
StopAntisemitism.org, a non-profit group dedicated to documenting anti-Semitic behavior, posted a screenshot of one of Brown’s original tweets along with his headshot, calling the reference “vile.”
“The @FoodNetwork host of Iron Chef America @altonbrown just spat on the graves of six million Jews with his vile, atrocious comment!” the organization tweeted on Tuesday.
Brown apologized Wednesday for the “flippant” reference to the Holocaust, which killed an estimated six million Jewish people.
“It was not a reference I made for humorous effect but rather to reflect how deeply frightened I am for our country,” Brown tweeted Wednesday. “It was a very poor use of judgement and in poor taste.”
Brown has become known over the years for his controversial Twitter account and comments. Eater reported in 2011 that Brown announced he was going to leave the platform after someone made a fake account posing as his wife.
The outlet reported at the time that Brown would “regularly post a bunch of tweets only to delete them en masse, usually within twelve hours.”
Social media users were upset with Brown on Monday for saying he had voted for Republicans for “most” of his life, in a tweet that has also been deleted but reported on by multiple outlets, including Eater and Newsweek. Brown did not delete a response to a fan, however, who said he was “disappointed” in the television host.
“Frankly, you have no right to be disappointed in me,” Brown tweeted. “None whatsoever. I have used my own platform to speak my mind. You may dislike me, certainly but disappointment in me should be reserved for say…bad recipes.”
Representatives for Alton Brown and the Food Network did not immediately respond to NBC News requests for comment.
