The world's most famous living chefs

Who would you say they are?

Define "chef".

Personally I think Paul Bocuse and J. Pepin would be at the top. PB is quite old now but I believe still alive, although maybe he is not functioning. Maybe not that many people in the U.S. would recognize these chefs because of the Food Network so a lot of Americans might say Emeril or Bobby Flay but worldwide I don't think our chefs would necessarily be recognized. Wikipedia defines chef as " A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation". However A. Bourdain says a chef is not anyone who cooks for a living, he described chef as "leader of cooks".

Here is an article regarding P. Bocuse written by Alain Ducasse.

http://www.time.com/time/europe/hero2006/bocuse.html

Do you really mean "most famous"? That, I think, would emphasize celebrity over talent. Not that coming up with a list of "greatest" would be any easier....

So without all the hemming and hawing over semantics how about:

Wolfgang Puck
Bobby Flay (hate to say it, but...)
Ferran Adria

It's easy if you limit yourself to three.

Remember, it's famous, not most talented.
IMHO Rocco DiSpirito is not a chef.

Yeah, but would anybody recognize Bocuse or Adria on the street? Thomas Keller falls in the same category.
If fame = recognizability, I can exclude Bourdain -- he doesn't run a kitchen anymore. And Rachel Rae never did (thank FSM*).

I'd have to put Batali, Flay and Emeril (why is he recognized by first name and everyone else by last?) at the top, just on name and face recognition.
Close behind would be Morimoto, Bayless, Puck.
I might have to include Art Smith, just because of Oprah.

Oh, and Julia Child trumps them all, if being alive is not a requirement.

Flying Spaghetti Monster -- what else does a foodie worship?

I'd have to put Batali, Flay and Emeril (why is he recognized by first name and everyone else by last?) at the top, just on name and face recognition.
Close behind would be Morimoto, Bayless, Puck.

I might have to include Art Smith, just because of Oprah.

Question also is how you define world. I doubt any of these except Puck, and Morimoto in Japan would be known outside the US.

Ferran Adria, in certain circles, would have much more global recognition

I vote for the two fat ladies

I forgot, one of two fat ladies has passed. I change my vote to Nadia G.

I would think people like Alain Ducasse or Joel Robuchon would be more famous globally than most US chefs.

It also depends on who you ask. If you ask a group of so called foodies you would get a different answer than if you asked a person off the street. For example my mom is not really up on food and cooking culture much so she would not have a clue who Paul Bocuse or Thomas Keller or Alain Ducasse is. Even Wolfgang Puck would not enter her mind immediately. I think she would blurt out Emeril or Bobby Flay. These are the "chefs" that mainstream America has been feed a steady diet of on TV and in magazines and newspapers.

It also depends on who you ask. If you ask a group of so called foodies you would get a different answer than if you asked a person off the street.

Seriously - which is why it doesn't surprise me to see no mention in this thread of folks like Gordon Ramsey & Jamie Oliver, both of whom are well known in both the US & UK media & are actually known primarily as chefs in the UK, even if they aren't here.

JoelF wrote:Oh, and Julia Child trumps them all, if being alive is not a requirement.

Julia Child considered herself a cook and not a chef.

Twenty years ago, when I woman commented, "Julia Child is not a chef." I thought she was jealously knocking her. I looked into it, I realized the person was being factual. To be a chef, you are the head of kitchen. Julia Child cooked, though never was chief of a restaurant kitchen. It made sense.

Julia was certainly a very good cook and a fabulous teacher.

Regards,

Most famous world-wide? Has to be Gordon Ramsay. I'm very surprised no one has mentioned him, in that he seems virtually inescapable. . .

The type of fame depends on audience. The question is famous to whom? For a general public, there might be a few media-centric chefs with well-crafted narratives. For those who are more embedded in the food community, other names might appear.

The narratives include Grant Achatz (chef with tongue cancer), Gordon Ramsay (obnoxious, Brit chef), Anthony Bourdain (fill this in yourself) gather a significant following. What has happened in the last twenty years that there are now chefs whose story is known to a broad audience - the more grand guignol the better (viz Gabrielle Hamilton).

The figures that we name are often handsome or beautiful - no ugly people need apply at the fame market. It is sometimes said (with truth) that we reveal bigotry based on weight, but the fundamental prejudice that is still with us and still thoughtlessly accepted is based on beauty. Ugly is an ugly word.

sundevilpeg wrote:Most famous world-wide? Has to be Gordon Ramsay. I'm very surprised no one has mentioned him, in that he seems virtually inescapable. . .

Two posts above yours.

Cathy2 wrote:

JoelF wrote:Oh, and Julia Child trumps them all, if being alive is not a requirement.

Julia Child considered herself a cook and not a chef.

The title of her PBS show, "The French Chef," would beg to differ.

It would seem to me anyone on television would be more famous and recognized than anyone else that just appears in print. Television reaches so many more people and makes them much more recognizable than others.

Of course that does not mean that they are "the greatest chef". I doubt if there would be any agreement on that as this thread proves although many mentioned here would make the list.

JoelF wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:

JoelF wrote:Oh, and Julia Child trumps them all, if being alive is not a requirement.

Julia Child considered herself a cook and not a chef.

The title of her PBS show, "The French Chef," would beg to differ.

It's a catchy title. Some years ago, I talked to her assistant Stephanie who agreed Julia considered herself a cook. Encyclopedia Britannica referred to her as a cooking expert.

Julia Child inspired me and countless others, I greatly admire her. I don't think being a cook over a chef diminishes her accomplishments.

Now was the Frugal Gourmet Jeff Smith referred to as a Chef? I don't know, though he did own a restaurant. I learned a lot from him, too. Too bad his off-screen troubled personality erased him from television.

Regards,

Athena wrote:

It also depends on who you ask. If you ask a group of so called foodies you would get a different answer than if you asked a person off the street.

Seriously - which is why it doesn't surprise me to see no mention in this thread of folks like Gordon Ramsey & Jamie Oliver, both of whom are well known in both the US & UK media & are actually known primarily as chefs in the UK, even if they aren't here.

I was surprised it took 24 hours for anyone to mention them.

By "chef," I meant restaurant chefs (so Julia Child would not qualify, even if she didn't also flunk the "living" part). Retired chefs are OK, but I meant people who have actually cooked professionally to feed people on a daily basis. By "world's most famous," I mean well known internationally. I'll accept "famous among people who pay attention to chefs" as well as generally famous, but I'm really curious about who you think are the real celebrities, people who'd be well-known in any context.

Culinary greatness is not a requirement for this exercise. Jacques Pepin and Masaharu Morimoto seem like good examples. But if he were still alive, Harland Sanders would trump them both, even if he did prefer the title "Colonel" to "Chef."

I'm particularly interested in non-U.S. chefs. I have to admit that once past Ferran Adria and the big-name Frenchmen, I'm hard-pressed to name chefs based in non-English-speaking countries. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa has restaurants around the world, but I believe he lives in Las Vegas. Except for a few Londoners, even English-speaking countries aren't so easy -- quick, who's the most famous chef in Canada?

LAZ wrote:quick, who's the most famous chef in Canada?

Tim Horton, of course!

LAZ wrote:quick, who's the most famous chef in Canada?

First one that came to my mind is Susur Lee, but that's only because I saw him on Top Chef Masters and Food Jammers.

Judging by my in-laws, Gordon Ramsey is the most famous chef in Canada

If we're talking canadian chefs, maybe Bob Blumer or Michael Smith. Among foodies, maybe Martin Picard.

Even if one stretches the point on chefhood (I guess he did cook or at least directed the menu originally), Tim Horton died in 1974. He's probably still more famous than any living chef in Canada.

Susur Lee may well be it for internationally famous (though in certain select circles Tobias Pohl-Weary is becoming well known).

I think you'd be really hard pressed to find anyone in canada who would say "Tim Horton" when you asked that question, though.

Some years ago there was a lot of hoopla about Michel Guerard. Supposedly invented "cuisine minceur", another term hardly I've heard of recently. I don't know what happened to him but he came to mind after reading this thread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Gu%C3%A9rard

Should the top chef or most famous chef also not just be famous for cooking but for making an innovative contribution to the world of cuisine. That would leave out many as they might be good cooks and chefs but they have not "revolutionized" anything.

Also another note I don't see any women (except J.Child) being mentioned and that is sad.

toria wrote:Also another note I don't see any women (except J.Child) being mentioned and that is sad.

Alice Waters

GAF wrote:What has happened in the last twenty years that there are now chefs whose story is known to a broad audience - the more grand guignol the better (viz Gabrielle Hamilton).

The figures that we name are often handsome or beautiful - no ugly people need apply at the fame market. It is sometimes said (with truth) that we reveal bigotry based on weight, but the fundamental prejudice that is still with us and still thoughtlessly accepted is based on beauty. Ugly is an ugly word.

I have to say that I have little interest in the culinary memoirs that emphasize the other parts of the writers' lives over the food. But I don't think they're anything new. I recall saying years ago after reading a spate of such works, "Can't you be a famous food writer unless somebody in your life commits suicide?"

I don't know that you have to be all that attractive physically to achieve culinary fame if you're a man. E.g. James Beard, Paul Prudhomme, Justin Wilson. But you do have to have style.

As France's original celebrity chef, Paul Bocuse built a Michelin-starred culinary empire and established the most prestigious cooking competition in the world. And yet, one goal still eludes him. Now he's turned to America's top chefs to help make it a reality—even if it means breaking from his own haute traditions

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 78334.html