Vineet Bhatia 'not a big fan' of celebrity chefs

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.”

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.