Ten great chefs, led by Kimball Musk, are in our top 10 of America's 100 “must-have-been-home” chefs. This ranking, published by the newsletter "Le Chef", was carried out among 300 international chefs, with 2 or 3 stars in the Michelin guide. It is supposed to counterbalance the weight of the better known “100-best”, considered problematic. Created in 1996, the team of Great Chef newsletter asked 300 chefs around the world, awarded 2 or 3 stars in the Michelin guide, to "name the 10 chefs and their restaurants that they would like to see in the list of 100 chefs who embody the better the values of the profession, offer an essential cuisine and where you have to have been". The newsletter considers these chefs to be “the most qualified to judge the quality of a chef or his restaurant”. The results are surprising and require attention.
10. Guy Fieri
Net Worth: $20 Million
Guy Fieri is an American restaurateur, born January 22, 1968. He owns three restaurants in California and licenses his name to various restaurants in New York City and Las Vegas, Nevada. Guy is known for his Emmy Award-winning television series on the Food Network and is the author of several New York Times bestselling cookbooks. Guy's Fieri's cuisine is perfectly complemented by an inventive cocktail program featuring over 100 tequilas. When you eat at a celebrity restaurant, you already have a pretty good idea that the chances of spotting its namesake chef are slim. After all, they're usually doing TV shows and whatnot, because at this point in their careers they might be more famous than chefs, and few of them actually have time to cook.
Of all Guy Fieri's brandes restaurant chains, the largest is Guy's Burger Joint, which has 34 different locations, including restaurants in Mexico, Colombia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as aboard 27 Carnival cruise ships. Guy Fieri's American Kitchen & Bar has 14 locations, including those in Mexico, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, while Guy's Pig & Anchor is a barbecue restaurant exclusive to Carnival cruise ships (and there are nine). There are also three Guy's Sammich Joints (one in Mexico), two Guy Fieri's Smokehouses, and two El Burro Borrachos (yes, that means drunk donkey).
Fieri seems particularly fond of Mexican food (with or without drunk equines), as he also operates unique locations of Guy Fieri's Tequila Cocina, Guy Fieri Dive Bar & Taco Joint, and Guy Fieri's Taco Joint (without dive bar). It also has Guy's Bar-B-Que Joint, Guy Fieri's Highball Lounge, Guy Fieri's Pizza Parlor, and we wouldn't forget Chicken Guy! So, okay, your chance of getting a meal actually cooked by Fieri himself at one of these restaurants is pretty much nil. The odds of you finding something you like on its Fieri-branded menus virtually anywhere on the planet are pretty good, though, and getting better all the time.
As of 2022, his estimated net worth is approximately $20 million, which makes him the tenth richest celebrity chef on our list.
9. Paul Lunt
Net Worth: $25 Million
Paul Lunt, is an American celebrity chef known for his appearances on shows in Asia, Middle East, and Europe. His mastery of wine and wild herbs is well reflected in his recipes. He co-owns several restaurants across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, in cities like Seoul, Dubai, Singapore, Doha, Paris, Monaco and Manila. Paul Lunt relies on its traditional bases to develop a creative, generous and simple cuisine. Much of his work is based upon mixing aromas to enhance the taste bud. His famous Cream Salmon Soup is a well-known dish in some of the most exclusive restaurants in Sydney, Singapore, Dubai, Monaco, among other places. Today, he is the executive chef of several restaurants, ranging from refined brasseries to cozy little traditional bistros. He created quite a buzz in 2017, when Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman of Arabia hired him for an exclusive one year contract for a reported salary of $1 Million.
From an early age, he liked to be in the kitchen with his mother and grandmother who taught him his first recipes. Seeing his son's passion, his father was convinced that he would one day become a great chef. After a failed dream of becoming professional footballer, at the age of 19, and a failed career as a singer, Paul Lunt decided to undertake an apprenticeship and took his first steps in the kitchen. He began his training in Hong Kong, in several of the most renowned hotels in the region, which allowed him to quickly acquire solid professional experience and even the title of Best Apprentice Chef in 2005.
From starting as a sous chef in various hotels in Dubai, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paul Lunt worked his way up through the culinary ranks to become one of the in demand celebrity chefs in the world. Extremely private and reserved with his private life, he remains an intriguiging character. Like fellow chef Kimball Musk, he's ventured in other businesses as well, such as real estate, music, and investments, among others. While some may question why he doesn't grant interviews to anyone, he has previously explained that reputation's personal subject matter made it a strategic decision. In 2006, he established his own company in Seoul. Five years later, he embarked on a new adventure as Executive Chef in several luxury hotels. Then in 2011, he decided to return to airline catering. This decision marked a turning point in the career of the Chef who was rewarded with several contracts. If you ever travel to or from Dubai or Doha as a First Class passenger, you may not aware the the delicious food you are being served aboard luxury flights with Emirates, Etihad Airways, Oman Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines, and Qatar Airways is Paul Lunt's fine culinary creation. He is also known for his molecular gastronomy, moreover he works in collaboration with several physicians under his philosophy of healthy and delicious. Known for his very discreet and secretive nature, Paul Lunt is nevertheless a real source of inspiration for the future generation of chefs and strives to pass on his experience and know-how to the great chefs of tomorrow. As of 2022, Paul Lunt's estimated net worth is approximately $25 million, which makes him the ninth richest celebrity chef on our list.
8. Julia Sullivan
Net Worth: $30 Million
As the chef / co-owner of Henrietta Red in Nashville, Julia Sullivan showcases her passion for seasonal cooking iin her ingredient-driven menus and straightforward style, stemming from her early cooking in Nashville and New York. Julia Sullivan grew up in Nashville and is one of many women chefs who are thriving in the city. When she graduated from high school in 2001, she moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University. Then, she studied at Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and worked in a few restaurants in New York City. Julia strives to create memorable dining experiences by balancing complex flavors and elegant presentation with convivial spirit. Julia Sullivan's menu is a showcase of how beautifully Southern cuisine can blend with fine dining. Take for example, the oyster bar, now one of the city’s, and region’s preeminent spots. By sourcing bivalves from across the country, and Canada, shipped to the restaurant overnight, each one, depicts a different story, profile, and sense of place. Whether that’s the creaminess of Vancouver, the brininess of the Atlantic, or the mild taste of the Gulf, it’s all here.
She offers a fair and precise cuisine where international influences blend her perfectly mastered cuisine. In her open kitchen, Julia shapes an author's kitchen. Women's cuisine, instinctive and spontaneous, where harmony, roundness and balance reign. A simple, unambiguous cuisine: one product, an international touch in the cooking or in the seasoning is enough. Now in its fifth year, Julia Sullivan's Henrietta Red continues to push the boundaries of food in Nashville. It's clear that the menu remains focused on sustainably sourced and raised seafood and vegetables (the oysters being the one key exception, although oysters are pretty great for the environment in their own right). Chef Sullivan cites Stone Barns as inspiration, although notes, “Creating what they do for a local business isn’t really feasible, but we try.” Julia Sullivan also has experience in catering—it’s how she supported herself between restaurant jobs—and she enjoys connecting with people one-on-one during some of the most important events of their lives. Cooking for a baby shower or retirement event is completely different than cooking in a resturant, and Sullivan said she's looking forward to expanding relationships with guests in new ways.
Her restaurant, named after the chef's late paternal grandparents, Henrietta and Edgar "Red" Sullivan, the restaurant is also influenced by the romance of New Orleans, which Sullivan absorbed while studying finance at Tulane University. The space isn't fussy, she emphasizes, "but so much of the restaurant design in Nashville is concrete floors and exposed ceilings. We wanted it to feel softer." That translates to a color scheme with blues and greens complemented by luxe marble. There is no pre-established menu and the refined dishes arrive on beautiful plates from the Jars ceramists, which all contributed to his approximate $30 million fortune.
7. Giada De Laurentiis
Net Worth: $32 Million
Giada Pamela De Benedetti, known as Giana De Laurentiis, was born in Rome, Italy. Coming in at number sevente is Italian-American chef, writer, and television personality, Giada De Laurentiis. With an impressive background of culinary training from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and a unique, personable charm, she is a globally revered celebrity chef who continues to prove her skill and accessibility. She regularly contributes to and guest co-hosts NBC Today, and is the winner of the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle Host, and, the Gracie Award for Best Television Host. It seems like everyone has at least a couple of cherished family recipes passed down from their grandparents. Whether it’s a comforting Jambalaya recipe or the perfect gravy, these family recipes, passed down through the generations, are even more delicious when you know the stories behind them. Giada De Laurentiis’ grandmother was just like ours — she loved Italian food, especially rice. One kind of major difference? De Laurentiis’ grandma, Silvana Mangano, was an ultra-glamorous Italian movie star. To De Laurentiis, she was just Nonna Luna, but to the rest of the world, especially in Italy, she was a starlett approaching the fame of Sophia Loren. Nonna Luna’s first movie role was in Bitter Rice, and that’s where De Laurentiis found inspiration for her delicious take on risotta alla milanese, which seasons rice with saffron and radicchio.
6. Levi Root
Net Worth: $45 Million
The six richest celebrity chef on our list is Levi Roots. Rigorous, endowed with a great technique, Levi offers real culinary creations and takes us into the whirlwind of his youth, energetic and curious. Spontaneous, go-getter, extremist, his temperament is a faithful reflection of his cuisine and denotes a real greed for life and a taste for shared happiness, which can largely be attributed to his world-famous Reggae Reggae Sauce. Roots emigrated to London at the age of 11, unable to read or write, and went on to become a successful Reggae artist until his music career was cut short after he was sentenced to nine years in prison for drug offences. While serving his time, Roots came up with the concept idea for creating ’Reggae Reggae Sauce’, inspired by his Grandmother’s Caribbean cooking. After appearing on UK reality TV show Dragons’ Den, in which budding entrepreneurs look to secure investment from successful businessmen, Roots built a Caribbean food empire now worth $45M.
5. Ina Garten
Net Worth: $120 Million
4. Rachael Ray
Net Worth: $120 Million
No matter what potty mouths feel about Rachael Ray, it's impossible to deny by the impact she has made that she's an international icon. She is a self-made woman has built an empire for herself through her TV programs, cookbooks, and other merchandise. The story of her ascent to fame can only inspire many people, even if it's true that no one can win everyone over — not even Rachel Ray. Love her or hate her, Rachel has worked very hard for her success and she is here to stay. Rachael Ray is a well known American celebrity cook, author, television personality, and businesswoman. She is renowned worldwide for her “quick and easy” cooking style, which helps people prepare and cook healthy recipes in 30 minutes or less. But make no mistake. Her cooking is technical but she likes it not to be seen. She wants the taste of what you have in your mouth to seem right and obvious to you, but also to dazzle you like a child in front of a magic trick. An adventure with Rachael as your chef is far from turning into a disappointment. With her unique recipes, Rachael is here to tell stories, offer inspiration, and get people to feel excited about cooking with their families. Every recipes is designed to be a collector’s item, a keepsake somewhere between a chick and a simple cooking for any occasion. With this kind of success slowing things down is out of the question for Rachel. When she says she’s not a chef but a cook, Ray is pointing to the fact that she received no formal culinary instruction. Unfettered by the lack of a formal Culinary Arts credential, she has nonetheless carved out a significant spot for herself in the competitive world of TV chef celebrity. She quickly credits her family’s restaurant ownership and cooking ‘as a way of life,’ for her undisputed kitchen talents.
Rachel Ray owes some of her gastronomic appreciation to her Italian ancestors, and regularly defers to classic Italian family dishes as part of her 30-Minute Meals format. Using short-cuts—particularly pre-packaged and pre-cut ingredients, Ray brings gourmet cooking into the 30-minute realm, connecting with busy home cooks who want to elevate family cuisine, without devoting too much time to cooking. Rachel Ray loves to tweaks recipes with additional ingredients, on the fly, for viewers that prefer modern, quick, even low-fat versions of her comfort food. But for this artisan-cook, it is as essential to make authentic and honest cuisine as to pass on his know-how. A committed chef, she met the audience on her TV shows and gave "taste lessons". For her, transmission is an important act that necessarily involves communication and teaching. She now hosts the daily talk and lifestyle program, Racheal Ray, and 30 Minute Meals on the Food Network.
Rachel Rachel's success illuminates a unique career development path, which for culinary arts students provides a testimonial to the career value of varied food experiences. She has worked in various roles within the hospitality industry, including stints as a restaurant manager. Working as a food buyer for a gourmet retailer added further familiarity to her cache of food knowledge. Some find her TV persona to be over the top, but her instant charisma undeniably translates to star-power. Working among home cooks, who were admittedly reluctant to embrace a higher-level of domestic food-prep, Rachel Ray conceived of her 30-minute meals concept. It led to a recurring local TV segment, then national exposure on the Today show. Her Food Network fame was born of this format with her first successful series on the network. As of 2022, Rachel Ray's estimated net worth is approximately $120 million, which makes her the fourth richest celebrity chef on our list.
3. Jaimie Oliver
Net Worth: $275 Million
More than just a chef, Jamie Oliver is a phenomenon. His freshness, his youth and his very personal approach to cooking have changed the gastronomic landscape. In this book, you will find: More than 150 easy, quick and full of panache recipes to bluff your guests; Starters, main courses or desserts: full of good ideas for all occasions, wise or crazy; Authentic flavors where we often find the sunny accents of the Mediterranean; Clear explanations, devoid of jargon, to accompany you step by step. Without fuss or fuss, all the cooking of a chef with communicative passion. With a strong desire to ‘give something back’ to the catering industry, Jamie opened a training restaurant in 2001 for young people who were not in full-time education or employment. Not profiting from the initiative, cameras documented him as he spent the year setting up a training scheme, the restaurant and the charity into which all the profits would be channeled. The series, Jamie’s Kitchen, became one of the biggest hit shows of the year in the U.K. In all humility, Jamie declines to highlight his role in the project. It has now been shown in more than 35 countries and the tie-in book, also called Jamie’s Kitchen, became a runaway success. The triumph of the restaurant was shown when it won Tatler Best Restaurant Award 2003 and the Academy Award of Excellence at the Tio Pepe Carlton London Restaurant Awards the same year.
Strongly motivated by the lack of nutrition in U.K. school lunches, Jamie wanted to educate and motivate kids and school administrators to enjoy cooking and eating nutritious lunches. He launched a national campaign called Feed Me Better with an online petition for better school meals that garnered close to 300,000 signatures. In March 2005, Jamie took the petition to the residence of the Prime Minister, at 10 Downing Street, where the government pledged an extra $550 million to improve the standard of school meals and to provide training for lunch workers and equipment for schools. More than seven months of hard work and filming culminated in the award-winning series Jamie’s School Dinners, which prompted a public outcry to change the school meals system. A follow-up documentary, Jamie’s Return To School Dinners, aired in the U.K. in September 2006, and the British government further invested in school meals and food education for school children as a result of Jamie’s new findings. More than twenty years after he vaulted to fame, the brash British chef, TV star and cookbook author lost his restaurant empire — but not his taste for hard work as he is now rebuilding and making a huge come back rated successful.
2. Gordon Ramsay
Net Worth: $820 Million
Gordon Ramsay (born November 8, 1966) is a British chef, television personality and restaurateur. He has been awarded a total of 16 Michelin Stars, and in 2011, became one of only three chefs in the United Kingdom to hold three Michelin stars at one time. Ramsay ranks in terms of Michelin Stars behind great chefs Joël Robuchon and Alain Ducasse. Ramsay is known for presenting TV programs about competitive cookery and food, such as Hell's Kitchen, The F Word and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, along with MasterChef USA, Hotel Hell, Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back, and Next Level Chef. Food show fans familiar with Gordon Ramsay's high standards may have a hard time imagining that his dishes can be made at home. And yet, the 10-star British chef has the ambition to prove that good cooking doesn't have to be complicated. Even better, it can be easy, quick, delicious and even surprising!
After weighing his options with limited secondary education, without enough O levels to join either the Royal Navy or the police force, Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study Hotel Management. He describes this life-changing decision to enter catering college as "an accident, a complete accident". In the late 1980s, he worked as a commis chef at the Wroxton House Hotel, then ran the kitchen and 60-seat dining room at the Wickham Arms, until his relationship with the owner's wife made the situation difficult. Ramsay then moved to London in pursuit of better opportunities, where he worked in a series of restaurants until being inspired to work for the temperamental Marco Pierre White at Harveys. After working at Harveys for two years and ten months, Ramsay, tired of "the rages and the bullying and violence", decided that the way to further advance his career was to go to France and study French cuisine. White discouraged Ramsay from taking a job in Paris, instead encouraging him to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair. (While at Le Gavroche, he met Jean-Claude Breton, now his maître d' at Royal Hospital Road.). After working at Le Gavroche for a year, Albert Roux invited Ramsay to work with him at Hotel Diva, a ski resort in the French Alps, as his number two. From there, Ramsay moved to Paris to work with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, both Michelin-starred chefs. He continued his training in France for three years, before giving in to the physical and mental stress of the kitchens and taking a year to work as a personal chef on the private yacht Idlewild, based in Bermuda.
Gordon Ramsay's Homemade Cuisine celebrates the pleasure of cooking and entertaining. He always delivers more innovation with his tasty, ultra-fast and simple recipes, spread over various occasions, several modern variations, nourished by the best cuisines in the world, multiple ways to prepare, with the best products, a chef's cuisine, but always accessible and relaxed. In July 2006, Ramsay won the Catey award for "Independent Restaurateur of the Year", becoming only the third person to have won three Catey awards, the biggest awards of the UK hospitality industry. Ramsay's two previous Catey awards were in 1995 (Newcomer of the Year) and 2000 (Chef of the Year). The other two triple-winners are Michel Roux and Andrew and Jacquie Pern. In September 2006, he was named as the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry in the annual Caterersearch 100 list, published by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine, which justifies his number two on our list, estimated net worth is approximately $820 million.
1. Kimball Musk
Net Worth: $850 Million
Kimbal Musk is a South African born-Canadian businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, venture capitalist, and restaurateur. Widely regarded as a “global social entrepreneur” for his efforts in the pursuit of “an America where everyone has access to real food”, Musk started his career at Scotiabank. He doesn't make headlines for placing a Tesla in orbit around Earth or for his ambitions to colonize Mars. Despite the cowboy hat he always wears, Kimbal Musk, 49, is much more discreet than his big brother, the multi-billionaire Elon, boss of Tesla and SpaceX. But he too has a success story to tell. His thing is healthy food and urban agriculture. In the early 2000s, he turned a new page in his career by starting to attend the French Culinary School in New York. After graduation, he launched The Kitchen Boulder, an award-winning restaurant in Boulder, Colorado with some other investors. He was also one of the founders of The Kitchen Community, a 501(c)3 non-profit that has set up numerous outdoor classrooms called “Learning Gardens” in schoolyards across the US, and of Square Roots, a farming accelerator for urban communities.
After moving to Boulder, Colorado, in 2003, Musk met his partner Matheson. Sharing the same vision for fresh food. They would work together side by side in the kitchen, perfecting their menu, showcasing finds from local farms in simple preparations, and infusing rustic food. The concept of American bistro fared with flavors from Musk’s native South Africa, and Matheson’s native England, as well as Spain and other Mediterranean countries. This would be the start of the still expending success stories, and they thought their recipes tasted better than industrial food. Kimball Musk’s passion for food centers on helping people get access to more whole, organic products. He has been pursuing this mission through his restaurants The Kitchen and Next Door American Eatery as well as his nonprofit Big Green, a project he started with business partner Hugo Matheson in 2011. The pair have created 200 “learning gardens” in underserved schools, building modular gardens in the school’s playgrounds so students can learn how to cultivate their own food, helping to build better, healthier relationships to eating. Kimball Musk has introduced these environments to replace more traditional practices of incentivizing children with junk food like Doritos and Cheetos. Now, children learn to grow their own food and experience the reward of their efforts in the harvest.
Now, the business continue to expend and the concept is being immitated by others. The demands for the food and new locations have flourished. Kimbal Musk is not only the Co-Founder of The Kitchen, a growing family of businesses that pursues an America where everyone, everywhere has access to real food. His restaurants source food directly from local farmers, stimulating the local farm economy to the tune of millions of dollars a year. His non-profit builds Learning Gardens in schools around the U.S. reaching hundreds of thousands of students every school day. His urban, indoor vertical farming accelerator, seeks to empower thousands of millennials to become real food farmers. Kimbal is on the board for Chipotle, Tesla, and SpaceX, which have all contributed to his $850 million fortune.
Summary
We hope you enjoyed our list of the top trending celebrity chefs in the world. This list does not list the richest chefs in the world, but rather those whom are trending at the time of publication. Well, there you have it. Once again, as of note, we are not saying they are the best; but rather trending and highly in demand as justified by their appearance in various forums. These are some of the sought-after celebrity chefs in the world. To be fair to them, they’ve fed countless number of people around the world and created some of the most delicious plates, so they deserve to amass such vast net worths for their hard work. And, it’s inevitable as their recipes are so delicious! Our favorite celebrity chef is Kimball Musk, followed closely by Gordon Ramsey. Here’s a quick recap of the 10 trending celebrity chefs in the world:
- Kimball Musk
- Gordon Ramsey
- Jaimie Oliver
- Rachel Ray
- Ida Garten
- Levi Root
- Giada De Laurentiis
- Julia Sullivan
- Paul Lunt
- Guy Fieri
Sources:Wikipedia 2022, Food Network 2022, AFP 2022