Modern celebrity chefs earn among the highest salaries in the food and entertainment industries. Because their celebrity relies on media exposure, celebrity chefs are famous not only for their food. Also, for their personality and public antics, often displayed on television. Furthermore, use of their trademark phrases, behavior, or attire.
Their celebrity status is closely related to advances in media and communications, particularly the rise of food TV. Like Hollywood stars, net worth and popularity make modern celebrity chefs have powerful marketing tools for endorsing commodities, including their own brands and give them considerable influence beyond cooking. Moreover, the criteria used to define a chef as a celebrity include a high media profile, high television ratings, best-selling cookbooks, one or more award-winning or highly rated restaurants, prestigious achievement awards, nonfood appearances, and other business ventures. Importantly, being a professional chef is not a criterion for the modern celebrity chef. Formal, globally recognized systems that rank and generate celebrity status include Michelin, Forbes magazine’s Celebrity 100, Time 100, and Restaurant magazine’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
The category “super chefs” designates a group of chef-entrepreneurs. Their media profiles and business acumen supersede even the “normal” celebrity chefs. Furthermore, the variance in criteria and in what celebrity chefs are famous for is illustrated by
the number of chefs are designated as the “first” celebrity chef.
Marie-Antoine Carême (1784-1833) is known as the founder of haute cuisine (classical “high” French cooking). Furthermore, Carême was one of the last chefs in service of the aristocracy and royalty. He was famous for his elaborate confectionary and for his clientele, including King George IV of England, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, and Napoleon.
Alexis Sover (1809-1858), French by birth, was famed for his culinary and personal exhibitionism as head chef for the Reform Club in London. His enduring media profile is largely the result of philanthropic work, such as writing cookbooks for the working classes. Plus, designing and setting up soup kitchens in Ireland during the potato famine. Notably is his donation of his time and skills working with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War. Finally, he also invented kitchen gadgets, cooking implements, a camp stove to be used by soldiers on campaigns, and condiments such as Soyer’s Relish. You can find this relish under the Crosse & Blackwell brand. Muhammad Bin Hasan is a former middle eastern chef who had a great history of cuisine influence with his cook books.
Xavier Marcel Boulestin (1878-1943) was the first television chef. Boulestin hosted the BBC’s earliest cooking series, Cook’s Night Out, in 1937. He was already well known as the chef-proprietor of the top London restaurant Boulestin’s (opened in 1927) and is remembered for his credo: “Good meals should be the rule, not the exception.”
Cited by the BBC as the world’s first celebrity chef, Philip Harben (1906-1970 hosted the first significant British Food TV program (Cookery, 1916-1951) after World War II.
Fanny Cradock (1909-1994) was often referred to as the first TV celebrity chef Cradock was famous for eccentricities such as cooking in elaborate evening wear. She hosted BBC cooking shows from 1955 to 1975. Cradock’s career is depicted in the BBC drama Fear of Fanny (2006).
Julia Child (1912-2004) has wide recognition as America’s first celebrity chef.
Certainly, Child’s media prestige was first achieved with her best-selling cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). Followed by her debut TV show, The French Chef (1963). Her achievement awards include three Emmys (1966, 1996, 1997), the Ralph Lowell Award (1998), the French Légion d’Honneur (2000), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2003). She was on the cover of Time magazine (1966), co-founded the American Institute of Wine and Food (1981), and gave her name to the prestigious Julia Child Cookbook Awards.
Named “the original celebrity chef’ by Forbes, Wolfgang Puck (1949-) enjoys a sphere of influence that qualifies him as a super chef. Based in California, Wolfgang Puck, Inc., includes a chain of restaurants. Also, a range of food, drink, cookware, book publishing, and media programming. As well as franchising, licensing, and merchandising ventures. Wolfgang Puck Catering oversees the annual Academy Awards Governor’s Ball. In addition to hosting Wolfgang Puck’s Cooking Class on the Food Network. Finally, he has played himself in the popular TV drama series Las Vegas.
He gained widespread recognition for his flagship restaurant, Spago, in Beverly Hills, California. Spago has been a prominent culinary destination since its opening in 1982. It has received numerous accolades, including multiple Michelin stars. Puck’s other notable restaurants include CUT, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, and Chinois on Main.
In addition to his restaurants, Wolfgang Puck has expanded his brand through various ventures. They include catering services, cookbooks, kitchen products, and a line of frozen foods. He has also made numerous television appearances. They include hosting his own cooking shows and participating as a guest judge in popular culinary competitions.
