Have you seen the latest celebrity chef endorsements to hit the small screen?
That famous four-eyes Gordon Ramsay is the new face of Specsavers, while Morrisons got its chequebook out to secure Pierre Koffmann, Atul Kochhar, Aldo Zilli and Nigel Haworth - along with Freddie Flintoff - for its latest campaign and ready meals range.
(see the ads here)
Judging by Twitter, the response from the chef community has been mostly unimpressed and phrases like 'sell out' have been flung around with wild abandon.
But is it selling out? And who do you think was paid the most/least?
I'm going to guess, from most to least: Koffmann, Zilli, Haworth, Kochhar.
What say you?
I say,
Very few Michelin Star restaurants make money, so chefs have to turn to writing books, commercials, reality TV and endorsments to make money. Now under an etchical point of view...well I can see a Michelin star chef endorsing a supermarket chain of the same caliber or maybe a "taste the difference range"...for the rest they are just signing deals purely for the money.
In this case I always ask my self: would I do the same?
Salt&Pepper: In this case I always ask my self: would I do the same?
And how do you answer yourself?
I agree, I think it all depends on the product/business that is being endorsed.
Lets be honest, while we all will stand up and say that we are artists and the centre of the cultural enterprise. At the end of the day we are still "Hospo Ho's" ready to prostitute ourselves to get that buzz of service. Being the best is what its is about be it the best chef, waitstaff, hote,l restaurant or combination of all.
Even in the days before TV and Internet reviews restaurants lived and died on reputation alone. So its little wonder that given the opportunity chefs will take the money.
If you get a show, article or a saucepan named after you then well done. Soon enough comes the day when it comes to the end. the stars dim and our hope is we dont end up as a KP again...
and yes I am more than willing to sell myself to the higest bidder, its the nature of the beast.
Well if I was an established and already rich chef (say Blumental) then I would rather keep my pride the sell myself and promote a ready made meal. Otherwise I would do what everybody else does and sell myself to the highest bidder.
Lets be honest we will never be rich working in this industry, we all could be better off in other professions but the joy of what we do is why we are here. Its why we read trade magazines. Scour bookshops and op-shops for odd books that may hold a new secret. Its why we treat chefs like football stars and have a critic in all of us. We will resent the tall poppies of our industry and seek to chop them down.
But we will never be rich, we may be well of, or even happy with our lot.
I will be happy to be established...