Cooking Up Some Profits
Celebrity chefs move beyond the stove (and the camera) to corporate roles
Backstage at Lincoln Center, stagehand Adam Lewis was multitasking. Fiddling with a soundboard, he was also trying to snag autographs from his new favorite food celebrities, waiting to be honored at the 20th anniversary James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony. "This is going right up there next to Beyoncé and Metallica," said Lewis, clutching his official program, covered with signatures from chefs like Bobby Flay of the Food Network's Boy Meets Grill. "These people are on the money."
With the help of that cable network and other cooking shows like Bravo's reality show Top Chef, chefs are emerging from behind the kitchen doors and mushrooming into a new class of entertainers—and corporate pitchmen. More companies are courting these culinary stars to help add flavor to their brands and sell products. And foodie investors are betting on chefs' newly found star power to fuel restaurant empires. As a result, the people who perform the sweaty, blue-collar work of restaurant cooking are being transformed into white-collar professionals, complete with accountants and publicity managers.
Five chefs made the Forbes Celebrity 100 list this year, including Flay, whose 2006 earnings weighed in at $2 million. That's far above the $67,000 median salary of an executive chef, as calculated by Salary.com. Big-name chefs can earn about $1 million a year just to slap their name on a Las Vegas restaurant, says Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder of the French Culinary Institute and host of the PBS show Chef's Story.
"Once you become a celebrity, you have something to brand," says Dana Cowin, editor of Food & Wine magazine. "Companies outside the restaurant world can get a little glamour from having a star chef," she says, pointing to hotels, cookware companies, and other businesses that have recently signed cooks to help market their products.
The deal cookware company Pyrex signed this year with Food Network siren Giada De Laurentiis was the first celebrity endorsement for the almost-100-year-old company. "We're trying to reinvigorate the Pyrex brand and reach younger consumers," says Michelle Maslanka, brand manager. This year Pyrex released a new line of baking dishes with contemporary-looking red silicone handles. "Someone like Giada lends credibility to the product line, because she represents everyday cooking and entertaining."
Glamour. For her part, De Laurentiis has been busy helping host the Today show and signing books. She concedes that her star power has grown beyond food. Now at book signings, "I answer questions about what color nail polish I am wearing," she says.
Smithfield Foods, trying to kick-start its business, went with Savannah, Ga., restaurateur Paula Deen, best known for dishing up treats laden with the likes of Miracle Whip and butter. Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, was looking to make home cooking less intimidating; its sales had taken a hit as people started eating out more. The company thought Deen's grandmotherly southern flavor fit well with Smithfield. "The research shows she is approachable, makes food fun and meals easy to prepare," says Jim Schloss, corporate vice president of sales and marketing. Deen has so far done about 70 cooking videos for Smithfield's website and is on a company-sponsored tour this summer. She made $4 million last year, according to Forbes.
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