Celebrity Chefs – The Rise of the Kitchen Superstars

The ‘Celebrity chef’ is not a new phenomenon. But the chefs have moved cooking out from the kitchen, into the living room and in doing so encouraged people back into the kitchen!

Please remember, a celebrity chef is a chef who has become famous, not a celebrity who can cook! Although there are a few of these, as well.

It’s amazing what a little TV and cooking lessons can do. And it’s definitely television that has helped catapult these characters into super-stardom. Looking back at the ascendancy of the super chefs, people like Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Cat Cora, and the Brit Jamie Oliver, they all possess that ingredient which makes a dish really sizzle: passion!

So, it’s TV that has created our celebrity chefs; although they first needed to be able to cook before the networks booked them to show other people how to toss a salad or flip a steak.

Some are classically trained – and this carries a lot of weight in an industry that is all about knowledge and heritage – others are self-taught. Even so, this doesn’t always make good TV, for that you need character.

The larger than life, and sharper than a butcher’s knife Gordon Ramsey has character, and a repertoire of cusses that would make a sailor blush, but it’s great TV.

TV chefs also have had a positive influence on diet. It’s always the freshest ingredients, the finest herbs and vegetables that make the cut; and you never see them throwing leftovers in the microwave, either.

When giving their cooking lessons they are educating as well as dicing, and the knowledge they impart is changing what we eat.

Cooking classes are one of those gift experiences that are useful for anyone. Ethnic cooking in Seattle, New Jersey cooking class or a Chocolate Workshop in Boston, you’ll soon taste the results!