Chefs should spend less time on TV and more time in the kitchen said Vineet Bhatia, the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star.
“I’m not a big fan of it {the celebrity chef culture} personally,” said Bhatia, owner of 11 Indian restaurants across the globe and patron-chef of Indego at Dubai’s Grosvenor House. “I think a chef is a chef and that’s what he should do.”
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Ever since the likes of Jamie Oliver peeled the mystery away from good food for his Naked Chef TV series in 1999, a plethora of chefs - who are as much media personalities as they are experts in their profession - have entered the public arena.
“It blows the head of most of the chefs and this is when things go wrong,” said Bhatia.
This might strike a discordant note for those who would think of Bhatia as a celebrity chef himself, but he claimed that he does not court this reputation.
“I don’t want to be known as a celebrity chef – I am a cook, a chef, that’s what I do as a profession. If the media like it then they cover it, but we don’t chase it and I have no desire to go on TV. My focus is to open restaurants over the world. If I started doing TV work then I don’t think I could concentrate on what I am best at – opening restaurants.”
Nevertheless, restaurants with the name of a celebrity chef attached to them are better able to weather the recession, according to a recent report by hospitality consultancy, Viability.
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Mar 7, 2011 , United Arab Emirates
Nice refreshing point of view. Celebrity chefs are often credited with encouraging new recruits to the industry, but fail to remind them that someone has to peel the onions. From my days i do remember that it is not all fame, fans and glamour. The first modern celebrity chef who's name i honest...