10 Things Celebrity Chefs Won't Tell You

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.

At press time the National Restaurant Association was projecting restaurant sales to reach $558 billion for 2008, a 47 percent 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.”