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Who is your favorite celeb chef?

19K views 185 replies 70 participants last post by  chefedb 
#1 ·
Okay, since we have been talking about Emeril and celeb chefs in general - and specifically :p - who is your favorite celeb chef and why?

I like Alton Brown because he focuses on technique and explains why he uses certain techniques. I don't always agree with him, but he usually has some interesting points. Besides, he is pretty entertaining.

p.s. I like Emeril's recipes, I'm just tired of watching him.
 
#3 ·
Yep, Alton Brown gets my vote, too. The more a cook explains, the more I like. And boy does he try to explain. I like his corny jokes, too, and the funny chicken inhis kitchen. I don't agree with everything he does. But I do like how he has food scientists on his show.

I learned how to cook from television (Madeleine Kamman, Jacques Pepin and Julia Child all on PBS). In the 7th grade, I used to cut school just to watch cooking shows. This continued in college, too, when the TVFN made it's debut.
 
#4 ·
Julia is God. Also I learned great things when I was a kid from Chef Tell and The Galloping Gourmet (he was much better when he still drank).

Todays winners are Mario ("MULTO MARIO!") and Ming Tsai. Also, while some of his stuff is condescending **** , I really enjoyed Bobby Flay's tour of Ballpark food.

When will we get an American version of Iron Chef?

Peace,
kmf
 
#7 ·
Truthfully, when I started this thread I wasn't even thinking of Julia Child. Julia is an icon and doesn't belong in the same category as Emeril and Alton, et al. As I have been thinking about it, I haven't come up with another chef to put in with Julia. Maybe Jacques Pepin?

[ May 21, 2001: Message edited by: nancya ]
 
#10 ·
I used to watch Chef Tell and got a kick out of the way he would waft the steam rising off a pot towards his face, and his signoff, which I still use on the way out the door to the kitchen crew, "Ok, We see you." If anyone feels like doing their own show, a lot of local cable companies might be willing to talk. I had my own show for a while called The Grouchy Gourmet. The whole point of it was to cook dinner in half an hour and we shot it unscripted, unrehearsed and unedited. This does imply a rather thorough mise en place, but it was fun.
 
#11 ·
Pierre Franey and Jacques Pepin belong up there with Julia in my mind. But Julia does stand alone in her monumental achievement of getting a wider portion of the American public to pay attention to what they are eating out and preparing at home. Think back (those of you whose experience goes back this far) to the supermarkets of the 1950s and 1960s. No salsa, no mangoes, no fresh pasta, a very limited variety of fresh fish, no artisan breads.... instead, plenty of Velveeta, baked beans, Wonder bread and Swanson TV dinners (oy, vey!!). We were all excited when we managed to find Tabasco sauce, for heaven's sake! Someone who knows a lot more than I do about Julia's contributions could say it better, but without her unique style and appeal, this site might not even exist, for lack of enough people to care about things like fresh flavors, interesting textures and high quality ingredients.
 
#12 ·
This is similar to another thread about favorite on FTV Network. My favorite is Jaque Pepin (my Hero!). As I stated before, he is the consummate professional chef with the most understanding and knowledge about what he presents to you. He has vast natural talent too.
Then Julia is the best of what I call professional home cook. The presentation of her knowledge is done in such a non assuming way. It made cooking a doable thing with cookable recipes.
They both opened the way for all the other TV celebs, but with style and class to exhibit the passion and love for the culinary arts.
 
#13 ·
Mez,

You're so right.

Julia, Jacques and Pierre are a wonderful trilogy in the cooking world. I grew up watching Julia. Later came Jacques along with his wonderful technique. And then, Pierre, I taped all his shows. Got all the books.

But Julia was the first and got me going!

:rolleyes:
 
#15 ·
Sadly we are down to One, but the Two Fat Ladies were/are a hoot! I'm not sure they qualify as chefs but they are on FoodTV. They never met a kind of fat they didn't like and they sure seem to have an awful lot of fun. :)
 
#17 ·
We used to live a lot closer to Napa/St.Helena/Sonoma (lived in Sacto) than we do now..so we've visited quite often. The service is kind of hmmm laid back..but I love sitting on the patio outside on a warm night. My favorite dish is very simple: Pasta cylinders with sausage, spinach, potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and Pecorino.
Another favorite place is Mustards for more casual dining. Then again, there are so many great places to eat in the area.

Tra Vigne also has a nice little delicatassen next door (breads, pastries, their oils, vinegars). Had great macaroons there!

I bet you hate to leave Los Gatos, I used to live right off of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.

[ May 23, 2001: Message edited by: SeattleDeb ]
 
#22 ·
Mario Batagli because of his passion for the ingredients and the stories behind the food.
Sometimes he is a bit much but I generally like what he cooks and love to hear about the origins of it all.

Close second would be Bobby Flay. His show is entertaining without the Bam! He has good chemistry with his sidekick Jackie. And the guests are almost always informative.
His restaurant, Mesa Grill, is excellent.
 
#24 · (Edited)
My all time favorite is Nathalie Dupree. I learned to cook from her PBS series. I filled in the blanks, covering most of what Nathalie didn't cover from Madelaine Kammen. I dislike those who are merely combining ingredients - Jeff Smith (who seemed to rely upon his assistants for actual cooking knowledge) and Emeril come to mind in that category. I like chefs who stress technique. Of the current ones, I really like Alton Brown and I do learn technique from him too, plus his show is just entertaining - I'd watch it even if I weren't interested in learning to cook.

I find I pay more attention to the "Every Day Cooking" chefs (a Martha Stewart production on PBS) than any others. I get more ideas for the type of cooking I like to do from that show than most. I like Bayless, but some of his dishes need to be tasted before I declare him "best". Some of those Mexican ingredients are acquired tastes, IMO. There used to be a woman on PBS, Ciao Italia, or something like that. I learned a lot from her too.

PS, I just looked it up. Ciao Italia is still on, just not our market I guess.

Mary Ann Esposito is her name.

Here I am editing again. How could I forget Martin Yan?? from Yan Can Cook. Wow, one of the all time best, IMO. All my friends ask for my Chinese dishes, and I learned them all from him. One of my friend's husband asks me to make chinese chicken salad (marinate cooked chicken chunks in sesame oil & rice vinegar, use as dressing) lettuce, green onions and thos fried rice noodles that explode the moment they hit the hot oil. I add toasted sesame seeds too, but you can skip them. He LOVES this.
 
#25 ·
IndyGal, welcome to ChefTalk. Good topic to bring back up, especially since the celebrity chef is bigger now than ever.

My personal favorite "celebrity chef" is John Besh of New Orleans. He was the runner-up in the first season of The Next Iron Chef, and runs several extremely popular restuarants in New Orleans, the Northshore, and now in San Antonio (thank God).
 
#26 ·
The question is, what makes a chef a celebrity? Having a TV show? Or having a great reputation in the field? Or being a cookbook author?

I reackon now that he has a TV series, Eric Ripart is a for-sure celebrity. In my opinion, if he's not the best chef in America he runs whoever is a very close second. It grieves me greatly that we don't get his show in my area.

John Besh is up there too, for many reasons.

On the flip side, I used to rank Mario Batali pretty high, but he lost a lot of my respect after the attitude he showed during the Q&A. And it's no secret that I have no use for Alton Brown. I know he thinks he's a wit; I think he's about half right.
 
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