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Celebrity Chef

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.

Super Chef

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.

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

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
Marty Larkin
Joachim Splichal
Jacques Pepin
Udo Prambs
Paul Prudhomme
Wolfgang Puck
Rachael Ray
Eric Ripert
Carl Stanton
Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet)
Charlie Trotter
Ming Tsai
Alice Waters
Justin Wilson (chef)
Martin Yan

Japan

Chen Kenichi
Yutake Ishinabe
Masahiko Kobe
Rokusaburo Michiba
Masaharu Morimoto
Koumei Nakamura
Hiroyuki Sakai

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Celebrity Chef".