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Ten Most Influential Chefs Named
Forbes.com named 100 Tastemakers “who shape the way we eat, drink, dress, think and live.” Ten of them are today’s top chefs.
Famous Chefs on Top Tastemakers List
The list includes what Forbes.com considers to be the ten most influential individuals in each of the following ten fields—film, music, architecture, winemaking, industrial design, performing arts, literature, art, fashion design, and, of course, food.
The food list is comprised of ten chefs “whose insights, accomplishments and boundless creativity shape what we eat, how we eat it, and how much we’re willing to fork over for the experience.” Forbes.com considered only chefs who operate in the $476 billion U.S. restaurant industry and only those whose influences currently impact our tastes, which eliminated notable culinary pioneers like Alice Waters of California Cuisine/Chez Panisse fame.
Top Chef Criteria
Forbes.com initiated interviews and polls with a variety of individuals, directly or tangentially connected with the restaurant industry, and looked at how much media attention and how many awards each chef had received; their restaurants; and their name-brand merchandise and recent projects. The following ten chefs made the Forbes.com Tastemaker cut:
- Grant Achatz
- Jose Andres
- Mario Batali
- Lidia Bastianich
- Wylie Dufresne
- Alain Ducasse
- Suzanne Goin
- Thomas Keller
- Emeril Lagasse
- Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Chef’s Salary Disparity
Forbes.com also estimated each chef’s annual salary—the results ranging from less than $100,000 to $9 million. Factors that contribute to the disparity between one chef’s salary and another are whether they have lucrative TV contracts, successful multiple restaurants, and high dollar payments for name-brand lines of culinary merchandize. Another factor may be owner-chefs who temporarily live frugally so they can re-invest profits into new restaurants.
No matter what, each of the top ten chefs, regardless of salary, has had a significant impact on today’s food culture.
Sources
About the Author
Judi Sandall is a technical writer and a regular Chef School Review columnist. She is a graduate of the State University of New York, with a BA in English Literature.
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