Just fifteen years ago, the idea of a celebrity chef in the U.S. was unheard of. The only culinary personalities of which Americans might have been aware were Julia Childs and Martha Stewart. However, starting with the founding of the Food Network in 1993, and likely fueled by increasing globalization which has increased diners´ food options and quality expectations, chefs started to gain media attention and wider public acclaim. According to Emeril Lagasse, one of the first and most widely recognized of the new crop of celebrity chefs, new television exposure has drastically changed chefs’ fortunes. "Chefs weren't really respected other than being in the kitchen. You rarely saw them in the dining room interacting with people… Now all of a sudden, people have started looking at chefs and saying, 'Wow! That person really is a craftsman, is really a business person, they can do publicity.'"
Recent television shows such as Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, Hell’s Kitchen, Iron Chef America, Top Chef Masters, and MasterChef, among others, have helped make culinary know-how more popular than ever and have virtually made household names out of chefs who had before been relatively unknown to the general public. The Food Network alone is now shown in over 90 million homes, attesting to the rise in popular interest that has been afforded the culinary world of late. It is theorized that actually seeing the faces, personalities and styles of different chefs has allowed audiences to feel a connection with them, which then translates into book, product, and other sales.
Both experience and personality are determining factors in celebrity chef stardom. Untrained and previously unknown individuals such as Rachel Ray, Paula Deen, and Giada De Laurentiis have become household names with little or no culinary experience. On the other hand, acclaimed chefs such as Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Daniel Boulud have used their newfound stardom to promote new restaurants, books and other ventures.
While the concept of a celebrity chef is still new to the U.S., in Europe is has been celebrated for much longer. France’s Antonin Careme (who served as chef for Napolean, the Rothschilds, and Tsar Alexander) is thought to have been one of the first celebrity chefs, due to his publication of cookbooks in the early 1800s that combined sumptuous recipes with titillating gossip about his former employers. In the late 1800s, another Frenchman, Auguste Escoffier, rose to celebrity chef status by becoming a culinary mangnate, running restaurants, selling canned products, and even publishing a food magazine that often featured his own image on the cover.
Opinions within the culinary world itself over the rise of celebrity chefs are mixed. Individuals of the home cooking persuasion generally view Food Network programming as a great way to inspire ordinary people to cook and demonstrate by example that anyone can make great food. Chefs who place more importance on culinary education typically disagree, and representative Anthony Bourdain has even stated that the Food Network does not promote real chefs but simply “ready-made bobblehead personalities." Other detractors lament the current celebrity chef focus on endorsements deals and food empires at the expense of the traditional emphasis on steadfastly working at one restaurant and getting everything right. Bobby Flay reports that his students more often ask “How can I get my own show?” as opposed to “How can I learn to make great food?”
No matter what you think about celebrity chefs, it’s clear that they are a phenomenon here to stay. If you enjoy following their recipes and careers, you will certainly have a wide array of choices as to who to keep up with in the years to come.