The Twenty Biggest Chef Empires (2024)

#1 Gordon Ramsay

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

27
5
17
10
167

(x4)
(x3)
(x2)
(x1)

With both the most restaurants and starring roles on TV, it’s not surprising that Gordon Ramsay has gobbled the most points. Overextension has its limits: To stave off bankruptcy this summer, he cut costs by slashing staff by 15 percent and rescinding ownership of hotel restaurants in L.A. and Paris.

#2 Alain Ducasse

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

26
0
18
12
152

Ducasse’s global empire includes a professional culinary school, a cooking school for amateurs, a chain of hotels and châteaus, four country hotel-estates (with restaurants), and a publishing house to churn out the most cookbooks of the group.

#3 Wolfgang Puck

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

22
0
7
18
120

Certainly not the only chef with a “Shop” section on his website, he shills salad spinners, coffee, cooking spray, soup stock, and a food-sealing system.

#4 Joël Robuchon

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

19
2
16
1
115

All that fawning on Top Chef Vegas, and no tchotchkes to sell for it; Robuchon concentrates on nineteen fine and casual restaurants from Paris to Macao and has authored sixteen cookbooks.

#5 Nobu Matsuhisa

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

22
0
5
12
110

Matsuhisa is credited with three acting roles on IMDb, for Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Casino (1995), and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), in which he played Mr. Roboto. If he opens another Nobu in the U.S., New York City will consider the restaurant a chain and will require posted calorie counts.

#6 Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

25
0
4
2
110

On the cusp of a major jump in the rankings, JGV plans to open as many as 50 restaurants over the next five years in partnership with Starwood Hotels.

#7 Emeril Lagasse

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

12
3
14
25
110

Bam! That’s a lot of junk for one chef to sell: Emeril JAZZ BAM drumsticks, ties, golf towels, hats, chef coats, cooking spray, clogs, oven mitts, golf shirts, coffee blends, and mugs. But is it his fault? In 2008, Martha Stewart paid $45 million cash plus $5 mil in stocks for the rights to Emeril’s cookbooks, TV shows, and kitchen products. All that’s left for him are the restaurants.

#8 Mario Batali

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

15
3
8
17
102

Fanta Pants partners with a company called Magic, Martinis, and Mario to put on events for Fortune 500 companies. And then there are the watches, Crocs, lunch sacks, brick ovens, wind-up toys, and shredded deli cheeses for sale. But Batali is also one of several chefs with an eponymous foundation; his aims to feed and educate kids.

#9 Laurent Tourondel

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

17
0
2
1
73

Tourondel’s BLT empire extends across the globe, dominated by nine BLT Steak locations, with three more forthcoming.

#10 Todd English

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

12
1
3
12
69

This brooding Boston-based chef partnered with online-dating site Lavalife this year to provide recipes for those who are “single and lovin’ it.”

#11 Charlie Palmer

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

13
0
4
7
67

Palmer consults for Seaborne Cruises, owns Next Vintage Wine Shops and Hotel Healdsburg in Sonoma, and has an eponymous hotel “under development” in Las Vegas. If you like the chairs in the dining room at his Aureole restaurant in New York, you can buy them at the Lime Stone home-décor shop he runs with his wife in Sonoma.

#12 Michael Mina

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

16
0
1
1
67

Mina boasts seventeen restaurants, including two in Detroit, and Charlie Palmer–endorsed RN74 in San Francisco. Mina diversifies with a single cookbook, and he tweets regularly.

#13 Bobby Flay

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

6
4
9
11
65

Beyond his Food Network gigs, Flay has his own line of Mesa Grill seasonings and a cookware and appliance partnership with Kohl’s for all your grilling needs.

#14 Daniel Boulud

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

10
1
6
9
64

In addition to regular appearances on Top Chef, Boulud has his own show, After Hours With Daniel Boulud, on Mojo TV. You can also buy caviar, Champagne, and smoked Scottish salmon at his online store.

#15 Marcus Samuelsson

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

9
1
6
9
60

Samuelsson owns Townhouse Restaurant Group, a management and consulting company, with Aquavit partner Håkan Swahn, and sells branded aquavit in liquor stores. The chef calls on his Ethopian background for his spice line, Afrikya Foods, and the album Afrikya, Vol. 1: A Musical Journey Through Africa. His BET show Urban Cuisine explores Harlem food, he’s an ambassador for UNICEF, and he’s made some side money backing coffee blends and cakes for Starbucks.

#16Lidia Bastianich

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

6
3
7
12
59

PBS’s mother of Italian cooking shills tableware, rice, gift baskets, napkins, olive oils, and condiments, but she also has a foundation, hosts cruises to benefit the James Beard Association, and is a founder of the advocacy group Women Chefs & Restaurateurs.

#17Charlie Trotter

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

4
1
15
9
58

One of Trotter’s fifteen cookbooks is Gourmet Cooking for Dummies.

#18Tom Colicchio

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

9
2
4
2
52

Colicchio’s not as omnipresent as TV commercials suggest; he’s a star of Top Chef, producer for Top Chef Masters, and has a bunch of restaurants, including Craft and his highbrow sandwich chain, ’wichcraft.

#19Thomas Keller

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

8
0
5
8
50

The Team USA mentor for the Bocuse d’Or didn’t get a win this year, but he’s Hollywood’s favorite chef, consulting for Pixar’s Ratatouille and Spanglish, which featured his sandwich-making skills on the DVD. His new Bouchon outpost is slated to open in Beverly Hills in November.

#20David Burke

Restaurants
TV Shows
Cookbooks
Misc.
Score

8
0
2
6
42

Burke’s name is attached to products like the Flavor Spray Diet (“After eliminating toppings, gravies, dressings, and sauces, Flavor Spray replaces the flavor that diets forbid”), gourmet lollipops, and pastrami salmon. He also consulted for the Hooters-like Hawaiian Tropic Zone and was subsequently mentioned in a sexual-harassment lawsuit.

Graphics by Marisa Woocher