Celebrity chefs. Years ago it was a term no one had ever heard of. Today, it’s a phrase that has come to mean a very specific type of chef… and I would argue that, even though it’s an annoying and increasingly-overused term, it’s a business model that other businesses can steal and use to grow your business to a higher level.
What Most People Do (Versus What Celebrity Chefs Do)
Most people get paid to do a thing, whether a real estate investor, a stockbroker, copywriter, an accountant, a dentist, a mechanic, a photographer, etc.
You name it.
Likewise, chefs are known for doing a thing.
They’re known for… well… their “cheffing”. They plan menus and oversee the kitchen staff and they cook. They’re the hardworking staff who make sure that your food comes to your table delicious and just the way you want.
But celebrity chefs? That’s an entirely different animal.
They don’t do as much cheffing (in the strict sense) as they once did.
Compare Gordon Ramsey, Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri, or Anthony Bourdain to… the dude whose name you don’t know but he cooked your meal at Applebee’s yesterday evening.
What’s the difference between the first group mentioned and the poor loser running the Applebee’s grill at minimum wage?
Ultimately, it’s not about talent (the Applebee’s guy is just following company recipes; we don’t really know what he’s like when he cooks without those restrictions… he could be amazing)…
… Ultimately the celebrity chef has moved beyond being paid in dollars for what they do and instead they are being paid in attention for showing others how to do it or how to experience it.
Here’s What I Mean…
A “non-celebrity” chef gets paid to cook and do all the regular cheffery expected of them.
A celebrity chef doesn’t really need to cook anymore. Sure, we see Bobby Flay cooking on Iron Chef America (at least until he quit) but when was the last time you saw Gordon Ramsey, Guy Fieri, or Anthony Bourdain in a kitchen to cook something?
It’s rare.
What are they doing instead?
They’re building media empires that talk about the craft of cooking or even how to enjoy the experience of food.
- They’re writing cookbooks… and other books
- They’re starting chains of restaurants and multiple brands
- They’re creating in and starring in their own shows
- They’re driving around the country in muscle cars or even wandering around the world sampling food and raving about it
They’re still creating, they’re still presumably doing some cooking, but they’ve scaled beyond that to create a media empire that builds on them and their (often ridiculous) personalities doing something more.
For celebrity chefs, it’s no longer about presenting a plate of food to a customer like they once did when they worked at Applebee’s… rather, it’s about creating a “character” and building an experience for an audience to consume.
And frankly, food just happens to be the main point around which they build everything.
Food is something we all understand and enjoy. And everyone has opinions about what food they love and hate, so there’s a lot of room for people to create emotion around it and to be attracted to some celebrity chefs while being repulsed by others.
But Does It Have To Be About Food?
I don’t think so. I think this same concept can work in other areas and industries.
What if you could become the celebrity chef of your industry?
… of real estate investing?
… of HVAC services?
… of car sales?
… of accounting?
… of dentistry?
… of gym ownership?
… of photography?
… of copywriting?
What kind of personality would you have? What kind of experience would you create?
What would you talk about, to go from getting paid in money for what you DO to getting paid in attention for showing how to do something or how to experience it?
What kind of show(s) would you have? What kind of brands would you create? What kind of books would you write?
The Big Lessons
- Guy Fieri is a ridiculous caricature. But he’s a brilliant business person who has created a powerful brand. You don’t have to be yourself to create a brand; you can be a character. (Here’s an old-ish blog post I wrote about building a celebrity brand)
- At some point you’ll likely teach people something… either HOW to do what you do or HOW to enjoy or experience the central thing that you do.
- Celebrity chefs are not really about cooking; they’re about media empires What can you publish? What shows can you produce? We live in an age where this is so easy.
- If someone else is already doing this in your space, that’s okay. There isn’t just ONE celebrity chef. You just need to find your angle. Guy Fieri and Gordon Ramsay are both over-the-top… but in different ways.
- This higher level creates “scale” so you can grow bigger, charge more, and build an empire (not just a professional practice).
- Of course the benefits of this higher level of business growth brings its own challenges… you need a team; you’ll have haters; you’ll fail more often.
- There are also interesting opportunities out there that you might not see right now. Anthony Bourdain was a fry cook; now he basically travels the world and gets filmed eating. There was a point in his life when that was unthinkable.
- The secret is to build the “attention machine” and then to keep feeding that machine with new things that support what you talk about. You’re creating sub-brands and shows and content and public relations to elevate your brand.
Celebrity chefs. They give us a template to grow beyond the confines of getting paid for what we do, and they show us how to scale up to something bigger.
