The 42 Greatest Celebrity Chefs of All Time

Michelin-starred perfectionists sit next to TV cooks who never ran a restaurant kitchen, and the oldest name here predates television altogether. Some made their fortune on screen, others on the page.

1. 1
   Julia Child

   American cook whose 1961 book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and 1963 WGBH series The French Chef brought French cuisine to American home kitchens.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Emeril Lagasse

   Chef behind Emeril's in New Orleans, opened in 1990, and host of Food Network's Emeril Live, known for his catchphrase "Bam!".
   926pts
3. 3
   James Beard

   American cookbook author and teacher who hosted the early TV cooking show I Love to Eat in 1946 and whose name is carried by the James Beard Awards.
   882pts
4. 4
   Wolfgang Puck

   Austrian-born chef who opened Spago in West Hollywood in 1982 and has catered the Academy Awards' Governors Ball for decades.
   833pts
5. 5
   Rachael Ray

   American TV cook known for Food Network's 30 Minute Meals, which began in 2001, and for her syndicated talk show Rachael Ray, which ran from 2006 to 2023.
   802pts
6. 6
   Mary Berry

   English cookery writer who has published more than 75 cookbooks and was a judge on The Great British Bake Off from 2010 to 2016.
   751pts
7. 7
   Alton Brown

   American TV host who created and presented the food-science show Good Eats and later hosted Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen.
   751pts
8. 8
   Guy Fieri

   American restaurateur who won The Next Food Network Star in 2006 and hosts Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
   629pts
9. 9
   Anthony Bourdain

   American chef and writer whose 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential made him famous and who hosted No Reservations and Parts Unknown until his death in 2018.
   629pts
10. 10
    Massimo Bottura

    Italian chef whose Osteria Francescana in Modena topped The World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2016 and 2018.
    629pts
11. 11
    Ina Garten

    American cookbook author who ran the Barefoot Contessa food store in East Hampton before hosting Barefoot Contessa on Food Network from 2002.
    629pts
12. 12
    Paul Prudhomme

    Louisiana chef of K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans who popularised Cajun cooking and blackened redfish in the 1980s.
    629pts
13. 13
    David Chang

    American chef who founded Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York in 2004 and hosted the Netflix series Ugly Delicious.
    629pts
14. 14
    Heston Blumenthal

    English chef whose restaurant The Fat Duck in Bray won three Michelin stars in 2004 and who presented TV series such as Heston's Feasts.
    629pts
15. 15
    Paul Hollywood

    English baker who has been a judge on The Great British Bake Off since its first series in 2010.
    555pts
16. 16
    Nigella Lawson

    English food writer and TV cook whose books How to Eat (1998) and How to Be a Domestic Goddess (2000) led to the series Nigella Bites.
    555pts
17. 17
    Jacques Pépin

    French-born chef and PBS host who co-starred with Julia Child in Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home and wrote the technique books La Technique and La Méthode.
    555pts
18. 18
    Marcus Samuelsson

    Ethiopian-born, Swedish-raised chef who won Top Chef Masters in 2010 and opened Red Rooster in Harlem the same year.
    555pts
19. 19
    Fanny Cradock

    English cookery writer and TV cook who presented BBC cooking programmes from the 1950s into the 1970s.
    555pts
20. 20
    Ferran Adrià

    Spanish chef who led El Bulli in Roses, named the world's best restaurant five times by Restaurant magazine, until it closed in 2011.
    555pts
21. 21
    José Andrés

    Spanish-American chef behind restaurants such as Jaleo and Minibar who founded the disaster-relief charity World Central Kitchen in 2010.
    555pts
22. 22
    Bobby Flay

    American chef who opened Mesa Grill in Manhattan in 1991 and has starred in Food Network shows including Throwdown! and Beat Bobby Flay.
    555pts
23. 23
    Marco Pierre White

    British chef who in 1995, aged 33, became the youngest chef at the time to win three Michelin stars, and who mentored Gordon Ramsay.
    555pts
24. 24
    Giada De Laurentiis

    Italian-born American chef who hosted Food Network's Everyday Italian from 2003 and is a granddaughter of film producer Dino De Laurentiis.
    555pts
25. 25
    Gordon Ramsay

    Scottish-born chef whose Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea has held three Michelin stars since 2001 and who fronts Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares.
    470pts
26. 26
    Delia Smith

    English cookery writer and BBC presenter whose recommendations, notably in the 1998 series How to Cook, caused supermarket sales spikes dubbed the "Delia effect".
    470pts
27. 27
    Curtis Stone

    Australian chef who hosted TV shows including Take Home Chef and Top Chef Masters and opened the restaurant Maude in Beverly Hills in 2014.
    470pts
28. 28
    Raymond Blanc

    French chef who opened Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire in 1984 and presented the BBC series The Restaurant.
    470pts
29. 29
    Andrew Zimmern

    American chef and TV host who presented Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods, sampling unusual local dishes around the world.
    470pts
30. 30
    Yotam Ottolenghi

    Israeli-British chef who co-founded the Ottolenghi delis in London and wrote best-selling cookbooks including Plenty and Jerusalem.
    470pts
31. 31
    Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

    English chef and broadcaster behind Channel 4's River Cottage series and the sustainability campaign Hugh's Fish Fight.
    470pts
32. 32
    Paul Bocuse

    French chef whose restaurant near Lyon held three Michelin stars from 1965 to 2020 and who founded the Bocuse d'Or cooking competition in 1987.
    470pts
33. 33
    Alain Ducasse

    French chef who in 2005 became the first to hold three Michelin stars in three cities, with restaurants in Monaco, Paris and New York.
    370pts
34. 34
    Auguste Escoffier

    French chef who ran the kitchens of London's Savoy and Carlton hotels and codified French cuisine in his 1903 reference book Le Guide Culinaire.
    252pts
35. 35
    Thomas Keller

    American chef whose restaurants The French Laundry in Yountville and Per Se in New York both hold three Michelin stars.
    252pts
36. 36
    Rick Stein

    English chef who opened The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow in 1975 and has presented BBC food and travel series since the 1990s.
    252pts
37. 37
    Ken Hom

    American chef whose 1984 BBC series Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery helped popularise wok cooking in Britain.
    252pts
38. 38
    Martin Yan

    Chinese-born chef best known as host of the long-running TV cooking show Yan Can Cook, which he presented for decades.
    252pts
39. 39
    Madhur Jaffrey

    Indian-born actress and food writer whose 1982 BBC series Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery introduced Indian home cooking to British viewers.
    252pts
40. 40
    Graham Kerr

    English-born cook who became internationally known as host of the TV show The Galloping Gourmet in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
    0pts
41. 41
    Jamie Oliver

    English chef who rose to fame with the BBC series The Naked Chef in 1999 and later campaigned for healthier school meals in Jamie's School Dinners.
    0pts
42. 42
    Nobu Matsuhisa

    Japanese chef who opened Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills in 1987 and co-founded the Nobu restaurant group with Robert De Niro in 1994.
    0pts

Comments