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Dialogues@RU is published
annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume Three
Spring 2004
The Celebrity Chef - Page 1
by
Gail Babilonia
When we hear the word chef, we imagine a nameless Frenchman dressed in an all-white apron and a tall white hat with ownership rights to a fancy, upscale restaurant. However, today the chef at a well-known restaurant may no longer hidden in the kitchen; well-known chefs can be seen every day on television. The celebrity chef is a recent addition to both the culinary and media worlds. Not too long ago, there were only a few: Julia Child was the most famous, and remains an icon today. Now, however, there are many more chefs to watch on the Food Network. Emeril Lagasse is the most popular, and demonstrates the role that celebrity chefs currently play in our lives. Although a recent addition, celebrity chefs have had a great influence on our culture: they have changed our ideas about celebrity and about the social status of the chef; they have redefined the kind of food ordinary people can have, and transformed the way men feel about cooking. However, the impact of the celebrity chef is one that most of us barely recognize.
Few students in a culinary institute expect to use their certification to become a “celebrity chef” or a Food Network television personality. There is far too much hard work involved in becoming a trained chef to have time to think about being a famous one. Tania Ralli, a student currently enrolled student at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, explains: “[W]e were cooking five hours a night, three nights a week, after full days at our regular jobs. The cost, $28,000 in tuition and fees, signaled the depth of our commitment” (Ralli 4). Because tuition and fees are so high, many students must work full time and attend school in addition to their jobs. In their classes, the students cook recipes over and over in preparation for a final exam in which they cook two recipes randomly-selected from among the hundreds that they have learned. However, Ralli claims, “cooking school was more than learning about technique. From developing heat-resistant hands to managing temperamental personalities, we developed the stamina necessary in a professional kitchen” (4). The students are critiqued based on their efficiency and speed, and on the taste and presentation of their food; they are not trained to be charismatic, friendly, or photogenic. Students focus on surviving in professional kitchens, not on cooking under studio lights. Becoming famous is not a priority for most would-be chefs: students enter the culinary world in hopes of having more practical things like job security, benefits, and decent pay. By and large, they are too sensible to daydream about becoming the next Emeril, which is fortunate because becoming a celebrity chef is beyond their control: becoming a famous chef really depends on the media and the audience.
What makes a chef a “celebrity chef”? According to David Giles, an author who explored the psychology of fame and celebrity, “the defining characteristic of a celebrity is that there is essentially a media production” (2) on television, radio, or in the movies through which a personality is exposed to the public. Actors are celebrities because their media productions are the movies and television shows that they appear in. The celebrity chef receives wide exposure through the media and is well known because of the media; the celebrity chef’s own show, and frequent appearances on popular daytime talk shows are his media productions. Without media attention and publicity, a celebrity chef loses the defining characteristic that distinguishes him from a restaurant chef. In connection with celebrity, Giles discusses the differences between two groups of accomplished people, athletes and academics, one exposed to the public more than the other.
The priorities of the media or the dominant culture determines which spheres of activity are most likely to yield fame to the people within them. In Britain. . . there are huge numbers of footballers who are famous to the general public regardless of our interest in football. . . Generally speaking, academics are not likely to be as famous as sports people, unless we appear regularly on television, our activities simply aren’t visible enough, important enough, or as photogenic as the activities of people working in other fields. (6)
The celebrity chef, of course, corresponds to the famous athlete who is recognized even by people who may not follow sports, and the chef hidden away in a restaurant corresponds to the invisible and unphotogenic academic who receives little public recognition. Celebrity chefs have status because they are exposed to the general public, and are “visible enough” to keep the public’s attention directed towards them (6). Both a chef in a restaurant and a celebrity chef have had proper training in fine culinary schools and have worked for years alongside great chefs as their mentors. However, a celebrity chef is exposed to the public through the media, especially through television, constantly appearing outside the restaurant kitchen as a guest on popular talk shows and on packages of his own line of kitchenware. The public is continuously exposed to what celebrity chefs have to offer, but we are exposed to the great restaurant chefs only when we are actually at their restaurant, or read about them (if we follow the culinary world) in publications like Gourmet and Food and Wine. The point is that celebrity chefs are exposed through mass media-we know of them because we have no control over when we will stumble upon them on our favorite morning talk show or at the kitchenware section of department stores.
The epitome of the celebrity chef is Emeril Lagasse. No other chefs on the Food Network have shows or audiences like he has, and his show is a true media production. First of all, the set of Emeril Live breaks away from traditional instructive cooking shows: instead of having Emeril demonstrating and speaking into the camera, the show has a talk-show format with a live audience and music provided by Doc Gibbs and the Emeril Live Band. The band defines Emeril as “essentially (part of) a media production” (Giles 2). On no other cooking show is the chef accompanied by a live band, which connects Emeril Live to entertainment shows like The Tonight Show rather than to other cooking shows (Emeril even has conversations with his bandleader Doc Gibbs just as Jay Leno does with his band leader, Kevin Eubanks). Moreover, Emeril’s show is unique in that it both serves to teach people how to cook and to entertain them, which is what makes him different from any other chef and what makes him a true celebrity.
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