The role of the celebrity chef

The celebrity chef is a phenomenon of contemporary popular culture that shows no sign of decreasing in interest, as reflected in the boom in TV cookery programmes and a number of bestselling cookery books and chef biographies and autobiographies. This has contributed to the professionalization of the industry and to a growing influence of the celebrity chef on consumer food habits and choices. This article makes an original contribution to the literature on chefs by identifying the various roles played by the celebrity chef: the media performer, the writer, the entrepreneur, the role model, and finally the rebel. Implications for practice are drawn