Celebrity chef

A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become famous and well known. Today celebrity chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations via mass media, especially television. Several chefs have been credited with being the first celebrity chef, among them historically Bartolomeo Scappi and Marie-Antoine Carême.

In the modern era since the advent of television several chefs have been attributed the title of the "first celebrity chef", including Julia Child in the United States and Fanny Cradock in the UK. While television is ultimately the primary way for a chef to become a celebrity, some have achieved this through success in the kitchen, publications and achieving such awards as Michelin stars while others are home cooks.

Celebrity chefs can also massively influence cuisines across countries, with foreign cuisines being introduced in their natural forms for the first time due to the work of the chef to inform their viewers. Sales of certain foodstuffs can also be enhanced, such as when Delia Smith caused the sale of white eggs across the UK to increase by 10% in what has since been termed the "Delia effect". Endorsements are also to be expected from a celebrity chef, such as Ken Hom's range of bestselling woks in Europe, but can also lead to criticism over which endorsements are chosen such as when Marco Pierre White teamed up with Bernard Matthews Farms, or when Darren Simpson advised and endorsed fast food restaurant KFC.

In South Korea, a celebrity chef is referred to as a Cheftainer.

The earliest chef to be credited with being a celebrity was the 16th-century Italian, Bartolomeo Scappi. He was the personal chef to Pope Pius V, and is credited with writing one of the first modern recipe books, Opera. The 19th-century French chef Marie-Antoine Carême has also since been referred to as a celebrity of his era, due to the complexity of his recipes.

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