What's the Path to Becoming a Celebrity Chef?
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Star-studded restaurant openings, packed reservation lists, celebrity fans, and lucrative endorsements are just a few of the perks that can come for celebrity chefs. We sat down with celebrity chefs José Andrés and Costas Spiliadis at the Grand Reveal Weekend at the Atlantis The Royal resort in Dubai to learn how professional chefs can level up.?
DUBAI — Becoming a chef takes time, discipline, and culinary skill. The journey to celebrity chefdom requires a different secret sauce.?
Where you train can elevate your cooking. But, passion can move you from “chef” to a chef with name recognition, said chef Costas Spiliadis, who chatted with LinkedIn News at the Grand Reveal opening of the Atlantis The Royal resort in Dubai.
The acclaimed chef will open his famed seafood, Greek, and Mediterranean restaurant, Estiatorio Milos, on the grounds when the resort opens to the public Feb.10. We chatted with him during the afternoon in the picturesque, marbled restaurant ahead of the preview opening. As we did, Jay-Z, on hand for his wife Beyonce’s show, walked into the restaurant to greet Milos.?
“I have visited classes in culinary schools, and some of them are very famous culinary schools,” Spiliadis said. “I have met the students there, and they didn't know where a tomato grows. Some thought it was trees, some thought it was a root product. [So] I think it has to start with a passion.?
“It has to start with a commitment to yourself. This is something that you love and this is something that you will do because you love it and for no other reason. If you don't start with that, you may succeed, I don't know, and I don't understand how everybody defines success, but I'm only speaking about what I understand for myself. So, if you don't start with a love and a purpose, there's no future.”
World-renowned chef José Andrés, who is opening Spanish restaurant Jaleo at the resort, echoed that sentiment, saying a chef’s “enthusiasm” for their profession can help push them to the top, as can a bit of resilience.
Andrés was meeting with his staff before and after our interview to prepare for the preview weekend, seamlessly interacting with about 10 members of his kitchen in a matter of minutes.?
“We are all young, and we study, and we go to work, and we dream to maybe one day be the chef that owns our own restaurant,” Andrés said. “So you try to be successful, whatever that means. You try to enjoy life, enjoy the place, enjoy your profession, enjoy the restaurant.?
“But the truth is that success is only going to happen with bumps in the road. [Winston] Churchill said that success was going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. I think keeping enthusiasm and understanding that sometimes there'll be moments that are hard, that you're a little bit lost [is important]. [Wondering] what is next? Am I in the right place? Am I in the right profession? I mean that's normal. We all go through that. But keep that enthusiasm up because it's what is going to help you overcome every challenge.”
Determine and Execute Your Mission to Become a Celebrity Chef
Becoming a celebrity chef isn’t just about schooling. Spiliadis studied sociology at Concordia University and never went to culinary school.?
He told LinkedIn News his mother was a “good cook” who used her talents and knowledge of food to entertain guests in their home, and that was his “only exposure to wonderful healthy food.”?
“When I went to study, and when I found myself in America, in Canada, and outside of Greece, and I interacted with the non-Greeks, I saw that their knowledge and understanding of Greek food was totally distorted and limited [to things like] souvlaki and moussaka,” Spiliadis said. “This is not how I grew up. This is not the food that I learned and I enjoyed as a child at home.
“And I started being upset about it. I felt angry that my traditions and food culture that I grew up with was so misunderstood or not known.”
So, he developed his mission. Spiliadis wanted to change people's perception and understanding of Greek cuisine.?
“I had a mission to serve, and I continue to have a mission,” Spiliadis said. “I'm 76 years old now, and I'm not tired. I'm not bored. I'm not crazy. I love what I'm doing, and I love every day of it. And it's hard work. So if you are ready to start with a purpose and a mission, then the first thing that you have to do is to be persistent.
“Without persistence, without hard work, without honesty, you can't get very far. Things are not happening immediately. So you have to have a mission, you have to have a goal, and then, things are going to come. But you have to work very hard.”
Considering food as an “essential thing for human beings,” can help, Spiliadis said. “I understand the need to transcend that and consider food as art. That's fine. But it may lead you to other things that are esoteric and fulfilling for only certain types of personalities.
“If I consider food as an essential thing of human beings, then I have to see that my food must be in agreement with the body. So it has to be healthy food. And if that's the situation, it has to be natural.?
“So immediately, that brings you to an important relationship with nature. A chef must have a full understanding of his surroundings and nature, where things come from, how they grow, when they are at their best. You have a recipe that uses tomatoes. That recipe is only relevant for the time that tomatoes are good. If the tomatoes are not good, if it's not a season of tomatoes, your recipe is obsolete.”?
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Your technique is important, but anyone can hone their culinary skills. What sets chefs apart from celebrity chefs in addition to finding their purpose, is their understanding of food and the ingredients in their recipes, Spiliadis said.?
“I am of the school that the technique should be minimum,” Spiliadis said. “And what we should prepare should be the products that nature is giving you. It’s important to go to culinary school, but that process will give you some minimum knowledge about using your knives or temperatures and certain things.?
“The most important part before you get to that point is to have a purpose and a mission, to be determined and hardworking and understand the products and nature. And then, with a little bit of knowledge how to not to cut yourself when you use a knife, you can become a good chef.”
Create an Experience With Your Restaurant and Food to Become a Celebrity Chef
A visit to a restaurant you tell friends about includes more than the food. It is also rooted in your dining experience. So, chefs worry about delivering an environment on par with the menu, and whether people will walk through the door.
“You open a restaurant, and then you say are people going to come?” Andrés said. “Because even places with great location, press, and social media, you are sometimes asking yourself the same question: ‘Will people come?’”
Andrés is surprised that 30 years have passed since he first opened Jaleo in downtown Washington, D.C., in 1993. He says he doesn't know how they survived for decades because the restaurant business is harsh. He focused on learning through experiences, providing people a space to spend time together and changing the menu as needed.
“In the end, it's the people,” Andrés said. “Nothing will happen without the people. The people and the stories of before…they are the ones that made the dishes possible. The traditions only kept passing by people to people.”
Andrés and Spiliadis didn’t rely on social media to build their followings as they grew as chefs in the industry, launched their restaurants, and built their brands, but it is a great way for new chefs to elevate themselves.?
Show what you cook on social media, share recipes with your followers, and reveal what it is like to do your job. Instagram and TikTok are great platforms for visuals of your life, and you never know who will see them and help you catapult your career.?
Spiliadis didn't have the option of going viral when he opened his first restaurant. So he funded and built it slowly.
“At the beginning, I had to rely on my neighbors to lend me $10 to buy a bottle of wine,” Siliadis said. “And as I was growing, I was also developing the financial ability to do it on my own.”
He said other chefs can self-fund their restaurants through their savings, or find someone who believes and invests in them to launch it.
“Moving out of a restaurant to your own restaurant means you are driven by determination to do your own thing,” Spiliadis said. “And I'm very happy to see that more and more young chefs are doing just that.”
Andrés said some members of his team at his Washington, D.C., Jaleo location have been there for 25 years or more. His name recognition propels new restaurants now. But the long-term success of his businesses is directly related to his staff.?
“Obviously, this restaurant, like every restaurant, is always associated with one chef, one person, one owner,” Andrés said. “But in the end, you are only as good as the people you have around you.
“And at the end, what is the secret sauce? It's all the people that have been around forever, and new people that are joining us. Those are the people who are going to keep carrying on the torch, and hopefully 10 years from now they'll open their own restaurant.”
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How to Become a Celebrity Chef
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2 年my wifes just about to publish her second cookbook, and her goal is to become a celeb chef, we,ve tried everything so far its like banging your head on a brick wal trying to get publicity.
Sales Coordinator at Juice Plus
2 年??Awesome article, Brandi! Looks like an amazing trip!