Celebrity Chefs: Postwar to 1970s

Chefs, Hollywood celebrities, and radio personalities were in the public eye before the mid-twentieth century, their images publicized through cookbooks, advertising pamphlets, and other food product endorsements. But the phenomenon of the celebrity chef stems from two cultural forces of the post–World War II era: the emergent food consciousness in America and the development of the mass media. The watershed event in the rise of the celebrity chef was the debut of Julia Child as The French Chef  in 1962. From its first local broadcast, the show rapidly became a national sensation, and she became universally recognized by her given name, Julia, and her sign-off, “Bon appétit.” When her image appeared on the cover of Time magazine on 25 November 1966, the accompanying article read, “Julia Child’s TV cooking shows have made her a cult from coast to coast and put her on a first-name basis with her fans.”