10 Things Celebrity Chefs Won't Tell You

[Food Network Fan]

10 Things Celebrity Chefs Won't Tell You

By Jason Kephart
March 31, 2008
1. "I'm a celebrity first and a chef second."

Take one part America's obsession with celebrity, stir in a cup of our passion for all things culinary, marinate in a mix of specialty cable channels and BAM! You've got the perfect recipe for the celebrity chef phenomenon. It's no surprise that more and more chefs are stepping into the media spotlight — "they're the new most likable celebrities," says Susan Ungaro, president of the James Beard Foundation — and they've grown in stature as America has fallen ever deeper in love with food. The National Restaurant Association projects that restaurant sales will reach $558 billion in 2008, a 47% increase over 2000, and the Food Network, the culinary world's premier stage, has seen its subscribers more than double in that time. As the financial stakes get ever higher, chefs are fleeing their kitchens in search of a bigger piece of the pie. Rachael Ray, the Babe Ruth of celebrity chefs, has ridden her culinary fame to a daytime talk show and her own magazine. The secret? It's not just talent, says Andrea Rademan, VP of the International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association. "Without the marketing, you can't be a celebrity chef."
2. "There's absolutely no reason to buy my cookbook."

You say you love Bobby Flay's food and want to try to make it at home? Before you spend $35 on his Mesa Grill Cookbook, check out FoodNetwork.com's recipe database, where among the 36,000-plus recipes you can browse, a quick search will net you 1,914 of the master chef's recipes — or 1,764 more than Mesa Grill contains — and it won't cost you a penny. Indeed, free recipe-sharing sites like Recipezaar.com, which offers 271,000 recipes, and Allrecipes.com, which holds more than 40,000, also threaten to make your favorite chef's cookbook virtually obsolete. But so far the vast storehouse of free recipes available on the web hasn't dented cookbook sales; in fact those authored by celebrity chefs have driven overall cookbook sales to $540 million in 2007, a 4% increase from 2006.
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[gourmetloveaffair]

I like #7
"...and sometimes they're just plain gross."



~~~Take the Red Bean Beach Salad that Ingrid Hoffmann made on the beach-picnic episode of "Simply Delicioso," for example. Users' reviews on the FoodNetwork.com's recipe board slammed the dish for its strange, unappetizing combination of beans and sweet pickles. (We're serious.) "Yuk! It is beyond nasty," posted "Leah" from Philadelphia. (A spokesperson for Hoffmann declined to comment.)
Obviously, it's not fair to condemn a cook for a single dish, especially one she makes on-air. But before attempting a recipe you've seen on television, do your homework. "If it's from a trained chef like Bobby Flay, you're in safe hands," says Gordon.~~~



To Ingrid... OUCH.

[MiseEnPlace]

6. "The dishes I make on TV don't always work so great at home..."

This is why I love Good Eats so much! Alton explains how to cook and what is happening when we cook. Understanding cooking technique is important and a lot of show just assemble a list of ingredients therefore the viewer never really understands what is happening. This is even a problem in cookbooks.
When I was less knowledgeable in culinary things, I would follow recipes and have success with some and not so good results with others. As I learned more about techniques rather than following recipes I became more confident in my cooking skills.