Celebrity chef
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In its strictest sense, a celebrity chef is a someone who has become well-known for his/her cooking. In practical terms, however, the term grew in popularity during the 1990s. It accompanied an explosion in popularity of cookery programmes on television and cookery features in the printed press. The name celebrity chef is sometimes used in a slightly derogatory way - a celebrity chef who has "sold out" to the media being seen as somehow inferior to a traditional chef in a restaurant.
Michelin star winner Gordon Ramsay, for example, has made a point of saying that he is definitely not a celebrity chef, despite having appeared on documentaries and written several books. Others such as Gary Rhodes are perhaps more relaxed about the title, yet still have owned and operated several highly successful upmarket restaurants. Many consider Antoine Carême (died 1833) to have been the first celebrity chef.
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Super chefs
The term super chef has been defined (if not coined) by Juliette Rossant (q.v.) for her book Super Chef: The Making of the Great Modern Restaurant Empires. Rossant counts super chefs as a growing trend and continues to track them in her online magazine Super Chef Blog (AKA "superchefblog.com).
Rossant's short-hand, one-phrase definition of a "super chef" is a [business] empire-building celebrity chef which encompasses restaurants, media, and products (not limited to food or kitchenware) as well as having become industry-recognized top chefs in Fine dining.
Rossant has defined the term "super chef" further online as follows:A number of ingredients go into making Super Chefs. Their businesses reach geographically outside one city and beyond restaurants into other businesses. They are celebrated for their cooking talents and bedazzling, media-savvy ways. They manage large businesses, building brand names and personal wealth unheard of before among chefs. Their business empires are enduring. (Introduction to Super Chef, p. 6)Rossant explains this definition publicly as deriving in part from her work as the first "Celebrity Chefs" columnist for the Forbes annual Celebrity 100 issue in 1999.
Rossant discusses Auguste Escoffier as the precursor to super chefs, albeit unwillingly since he was uninterested in entreneurship: she deems Wolfgang Puck as the first, lasting, modern super chef and profiles him as the first among six American super chefs in her book, which inclues Charlie Palmer, Todd English, the team of Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, and Tom Colicchio. Other American super chefs include: Emeril Lagasse, Thomas Keller, Bobby Flay, Joachim Splichal, Eric Ripert, Charlie Trotter, and Ming Tsai. Super chefs outside the USA include: Gordon Ramsay, Alain Ducasse, Joël Robuchon, and French Legion of Honor recipient Paul Bocuse.
As an example of the growing number to be counted among super chefs is Mario Batali, who will soon add restaurants outside New York to his Media (Food Network) and business (food and kitchenware) empire.
Not to be included on Rossant's official list of super chefs are a number of celebrity chefs without restaurant ownership, including: Julia Child, James Beard, Jacques Pepin, Sara Moulton, Anthony Bourdain, Alton Brown, and Rocco DiSpirito.
A number of top chefs are not deemed "super chefs" simply because they do own restaurants outside one geographic (metropolitan) area, including: Paul Prudhomme, Alice Waters, Martin Yan (who currently co-owns a Casual restaurant chain in California], Michael Chiarello, and Masaharu Morimoto.
A number of celebrity cooks have been dubbed "TV chefs" without having earned the title within the Restaurant Industry, including: Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, and Jeffrey Smith (AKA The Frugal Gourmet).
Some celebrity chefs
United Kingdom
- Raymond Blanc
- Ross Burden
- Fanny Cradock*
- Elizabeth David*
- Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall*
- Keith Floyd
- Ainsley Harriott
- Madhur Jaffrey*
- Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet)
- Nigella Lawson*
- Nick Nairn
- Jamie Oliver
- Gordon Ramsay
- Gary Rhodes
- Nigel Slater*
- Delia Smith*
- Rick Stein
- Marco Pierre White
- Antony Worrall Thompson
- Two Fat Ladies (Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson-Wright*)
- Danny Boome
* Television personality and/or food writer who did not spend significant time as a working chef.
See also: Ready, Steady, Cook, Can't Cook, Won't Cook
United States
- Mario Batali
- Rick Bayless
- James Beard
- Alton Brown*
- Anthony Bourdain
- Scott Bryan
- Michael Chiarello
- Julia Child*
- Giada De Laurentiis
- Paula Deen
- Rocco Dispirito
- Todd English
- Bobby Flay
- Ken Hom
- Thomas Keller
- Emeril Lagasse
- Joachim Splichal
- Jacques Pepin
- Udo Prambs
- Paul Prudhomme
- Wolfgang Puck
- Rachael Ray*
- Eric Ripert
- Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet)
- Charlie Trotter
- Ming Tsai
- Alice Waters
- Justin Wilson (chef)*
- Martin Yan
- Carl Stanton
* Television personality who did not spend significant time as a working chef.
Japan
Note: Except for Chen Kenichi, which is a Chinese name, the names appear in Western order (given name first), not Asian order (family name first).
- Chen Kenichi
- Yutake Ishinabe
- Masahiko Kobe
- Rokusaburo Michiba
- Masaharu Morimoto
- Koumei Nakamura
- Hiroyuki Sakai