Celebrity chef facts for kids
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become very famous and well known. These chefs often become celebrities by sharing cooking tips and showing how to cook through mass media, especially on television. Many chefs are seen as the first celebrity chef, like Bartolomeo Scappi and Marie-Antoine Carême from history.
In modern times, since TV became popular, several chefs have been called the "first celebrity chef." These include Julia Child in the United States and Fanny Cradock in the UK. While television is the main way for a chef to become famous, some also achieve this by being very successful in their kitchens, writing books, or winning awards like Michelin stars. Some celebrity chefs are even home cooks who became famous!
Celebrity chefs can also greatly influence what people eat across different countries. They might introduce new foods or show how foreign dishes are truly made. They can also boost sales of certain foods. For example, when Delia Smith used white eggs in her recipes, sales of white eggs in the UK went up by 10%! This was even called the "Delia effect." Famous chefs also often endorse products, like Ken Hom's popular woks in Europe. However, sometimes these endorsements can lead to criticism, like when Marco Pierre White worked with Bernard Matthews Farms or when Darren Simpson endorsed fast food restaurant KFC.
In South Korea, a celebrity chef is sometimes called a Cheftainer.
Contents
How Chefs Become Famous on TV
Television has played a huge role in making chefs household names. Many chefs gained fame by hosting their own cooking shows.
Early TV Chefs
The first television celebrity chef in the UK was Fanny Cradock. She appeared on British TV for over 20 years, from the 1950s to the 1970s. She first became popular after her cookbook The Practical Cook came out in 1949. She also gained many fans by giving cooking demonstrations in theaters. Her TV career ended after a controversial moment on a TV show called The Big Time in 1976.
Julia Child is often called America's first celebrity chef. She first appeared on American TV in 1963. Soon after, she starred in her own show, The French Chef, which led to other popular shows. When she passed away, the media said she had "made cooking easier for home cooks and inspired many of today's celebrity chefs." Her kitchen is even kept on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History because of her big impact on American cooking.
Modern TV Chefs
In recent years, winning a Michelin star has helped chefs become famous enough to appear on television. Marco Pierre White became the youngest chef in the world to earn three Michelin stars. This made him a household name. One of his cookbooks, White Heat, was called "possibly the most influential recipe book of the last 20 years" in 2005.
Another example is Gordon Ramsay. His success led to a TV series called Boiling Point by the UK's Channel 4. This show followed him as he opened his first solo restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. While chefs like Joël Robuchon, Alain Ducasse, and Gordon Ramsay all run many restaurants with many Michelin stars, Ramsay is perhaps the most famous. This is because he has many TV shows broadcast internationally in the UK, the United States, and around the world.
Special TV channels just for food have also helped chefs become famous. For example, in the United States, the Food Network features shows from celebrity chefs like Paula Deen and Bobby Flay. In the UK, the Good Food Channel has shows with chefs like Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver. Some chefs, like Nigella Lawson, have had shows on channels in more than one country.
How Celebrity Chefs Influence Us
Celebrity chefs have changed the types of food that many people eat. For example, Asian cuisine had been in the UK for a long time. But it was only when chefs like Ken Hom and Madhur Jaffrey appeared in the early 1980s that people learned about the true, authentic versions of these dishes. Ken Hom's book Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery sold 1.2 million copies in the UK after his first TV series in 1984.
Chef Jamie Oliver started a campaign in the UK with his TV show Jamie's School Dinners. He wanted to improve the quality of school dinners for children. This campaign led to changes in food standards across the UK. The show was even shown in the United States for the same purpose.
Endorsing Products
When celebrity chefs endorse products, it can greatly increase demand for certain foods. Both Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson caused a big rise in sales of goose fat after using it in their recipes. Ken Hom's first TV series also led to a jump in sales of peking ducks.
Endorsements by Delia Smith became so famous that the "Delia effect" was added to the British dictionary in 2001. For example, her How to Cook series caused a 10% increase in egg sales. Sales of tinned minced beef and Fray Bentos tinned pies also went up by about 12% after her book How To Cheat At Cooking was published.
Product lines for kitchen items have also become a common way for celebrity chefs to earn money. More than 4.7 million of Ken Hom's endorsed woks have been sold in Europe. Writing cookbooks is also a regular activity for celebrity chefs. This includes chefs with Michelin stars and home cooks who create books to go along with their TV shows.
Some endorsements by celebrity chefs have led to criticism. In 2011, Australian chef Darren Simpson created a range of burgers for fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. This led to comments on Twitter and other places. Australian TV chef Colin Fassnidge said that Simpson's choice made him a "laughing stock." He added that while chefs can make a lot of money from such deals, they also risk their reputation. In the UK, Marco Pierre White faced criticism in March 2010 for working with Bernard Matthews Farms to create ready meals. These meals were stopped after a year.
Are Celebrity Chef Recipes Healthy?
A study published in 2012 looked at recipes from popular books by TV chefs like Nigella Lawson, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver, and Lorraine Pascale. The study found that these recipes were sometimes less healthy than supermarket ready meals. Neither the ready meals nor the chefs' recipes fully met national or international guidelines for a balanced diet.
Famous Chefs
- Francesco Bellissimo
- Gino D'Acampo
- Rocco Despirito
- Lisa Faulkner
- The Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith)
- Ken Hom
- Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet)
- Nigella Lawson
- Emeril Legasse
- Jamie Oliver
- Paul Prudhomme
- Wolfgang Puck
- Gordon Ramsay
- Rachael Ray
- Alfons Schuhbeck
- Delia Smith
- Rick Stein
- Phil Vickery
- Marco Pierre White
- Martin Yan
Historical Famous Chefs
- Eliza Acton
- Carême
- Julia Child
- Fanny Cradock
- Escoffier
- Mrs Beeton
- The Two Fat Ladies (Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright)
- La Varenne
Images for kids
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Alexis Soyer's image was used to market a range of sauces produced by the Crosse & Blackwell company.
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Doña Petrona giving a cooking class in Buenos Aires, 1938
