10 Things Celebrity Chefs
Won't Tell You - pg. 2

By Jason Kephart



6. "The dishes I make on TV don't always work so great at home..."
Sue Gordon, a New Jersey cooking instructor, is a big fan of the Food Network. "I'm always looking for what they'll teach me," she says. Unfortunately, when she tried to duplicate the sweet-potato gnocchi she watched Giada De Laurentiis make on "Everyday Italian," she learned the age-old lesson that looks aren't everything. "It was so sticky, I had to keep adding flour," Gordon says. "The amounts were completely wrong." Turns out Gordon wasn't the only one who had problems with the recipe -- the reviews section of FoodNetwork.com features similar complaints from a number of viewers. (A spokesperson for De Laurentiis declined to comment.)

Often it's a matter of translation. A chef might take a recipe for, say, 24 servings and divide it by four — but then fail to adjust the cooking time properly. These slight variations can make a huge difference, according to Ellen Brown, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cooking Substitution." Also, home cooking and professional cooking are entirely different; even the equipment varies. "It's like getting advice from a race-car driver on how to commute to work," Kimball says. "It's two different skill sets."

7. "...and sometimes they're just plain gross."
Besides having to worry about whether a recipe you got from a cooking show is correct and usable, you also have to be wary of recipes that just don't taste very good. "I've seen chefs on TV create things that make me cringe in horror at the thought that people are going to eat them," says Ellen Brown.

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.

8. "It might be my restaurant, but that doesn't mean I cook there."
A recent ad campaign for the city of Las Vegas had a commercial featuring Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck, promising that in Vegas you can visit three celebrity chefs in three days. What the ad doesn't mention is that you've got a better chance of hitting the jackpot at keno than you do eating food that's actually been cooked by your favorite celebrity chef at one of his many restaurants.

That's not to say the food isn't going to taste good. The menu at these restaurants is prepared from the chef's own recipes, and as Batali's assistant Pamela Lewy says, "Mario is in all of his restaurants all of the time." But while that may be true spiritually, it's simply unrealistic for diners to expect their meal to be prepared by a celebrity chef restaurateur.

But you can improve your odds by checking your favorite chef's tour schedule. If he's going to be traveling to your city, he's more than likely going to visit his restaurants there. If you're lucky enough to catch Lagasse at one of his places, for example, you could be in for a treat. "If he's at the restaurant, he's behind the line cooking," says a spokesperson for the chef.

9. "My show is one long commercial for my cookbooks."
The publishing world sure has changed since cookbook author Mollie Katzen altered the landscape back in 1977 with The Moosewood Cookbook, widely credited with introducing vegetarian cooking to the mainstream. Before finding a publisher Katzen sold the book out of her car, and through word of mouth its popularity exploded, making it one of the 10 bestselling cookbooks of all time, according to The New York Times.

With the rise of the Food Network and the birth of celebrity chefdom, it's unlikely that Katzen, who says she was rejected by the Food Network for not being entertaining enough -- "I'm too much like Mr. Rogers," she says -- could ever have sold as many books if Moosewood were released today. (The Food Network had no comment.) That's because celebrity chefs have a stranglehold on the bestseller list, which is proving tough to break. The top five cookbooks of 2006, and 14 of the top 20, belonged to Food Network personalities, according to Simba Information, a Stamford, Conn., market-research firm. "When you're on TV it's like having a commercial on every week," says Anthony Bourdain.

But things might be changing. Despite Rachael Ray's growing media presence, her books didn't perform as well across the board in 2007 as they did in 2006, according to Michael Norris, a senior analyst at Simba. "Would you be on every box of crackers in the country if you thought your cookbooks were going to pay the freight forever?" he asks.

10. "Bottom line: My celebrity status is great for business."
Camille Becerra experienced the Midas touch of celebrity chefdom firsthand when she was chosen as a contestant on Top Chef. After appearing in four episodes, Becerra estimates that she's seen a 35% to 40% increase at her Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurant, Paloma. Not bad for someone who lasted less than half a season.

Little wonder, then, that some chefs, like Melissa Murphy, owner of Sweet Melissa Patisserie in Brooklyn, N.Y., are using brief appearances on food TV to boost their business. Murphy, who won a Food Network Challenge making edible ornaments, already has a cookbook out and is currently shopping a show idea of her own. But it's not so easy to climb to the top of the celebrity chef heap. As Tom Colicchio says he once told a graduating class at the esteemed Culinary Institute of America, "If you got into this business to be the next Emeril, you should apologize to your parents for wasting their money."

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