Are British Super Chefs Richer?

By JULIETTE ROSSANT What are super chefs making on the other side of the Atlantic? The Independent published an article revealing the wealth of Britain's top ten. The list includes: Gordon Ramsay, £ 67m ($126m) Jamie Oliver, £ 38m($71m) Rick Stein, £ 36m ($67m) Delia Smith, £ 25m ($47m) Anthony Worrall Thompson, £ 21m ($39m) Marco Pierre White, £ 10m ($18m) Gary Rhodes, £ 8m ($15m) Raymond Blanc, £ 7m ($13m) Nigella Lawson, £ 3m ($5.6m) Heston Blumenthal, £ 2m ($3.7m) Only Marco Pierre White is not on television, but all have books and other media and financial interests. Only Nigella Lawson does not own a restaurants, while most have multiple restaurants. Only three are international: Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Gary Rhodes. How do they compare to super chefs in the vastly larger US market? Forbes Magazine has never counted the top ten, and has stopped counting the top five in its annual "Celebrity 100" issue. The 2006 issue counted: Wolfgang Puck, $16m (No. 89) Emeril Lagasse, $10m (No. 94) Rachael Ray $6m (No. 81) Mario Batali $5m (No. 98) The calculation parameters are different (Forbes does not include future earnings, just current year plus a media weight), but surely American celebrity watchers are missing some big bucks across the Atlantic by current count -- and not counting the French. Television remains a factor: nearly all chefs on both lists are on it. Sadly, both lists under-represent women and include women who are not chefs but cooks. Previous articles: Forbes Celebrity 100 Chefs 2006: Cute? Celebrity Chefs from 2005 Forbes Celebrity 100 Rocco DiSpirito: Be Warned By Me Latest Forbes Celebrity Chefs column [Chefs & Branding - complete] [Food Television - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to superchefblog