Chef Todd EnglishLast month at the New York Food and Wine Festival celebrity chefs were living the rockstar life. There seems to be a growing number of groupies out for their meat these days… I’ll see myself out.
The New York Post chatted to women who attended the festival to get an idea of what they were after.
“We thought boys, burgers, and beers, in that order,” said Shanna, 31, who visited from Miami.
“I’m terribly picky, but I would date a chef because I’d like someone to expand my horizons, said Melissa, 32. “They are celebrities!”
Women erupt in shrieks upon seeing the celebrity chefs they desire the most. Todd English had them taking off their clothes and jumping in a hot tub at last years festival.
Lee Schrager, producer of the New York Food and Wine Festival says that “people are passionate about seeing Mario Batali share his favourite recipe onstage the way they used to go crazy seeing The Beatles.”
Chef John Daley, 36, the sashimi wiz behind the the Lower East Side’s Sushi Ko, recalls a young woman visiting the sushi bar one night. Her date was running late, so she and Daley got chatting.
The date arrived, they had a mediocre time together, and they left. She returned alone 20 minutes later and in Daley’s words “she was quite physically aggressive. We drank and had sex in the back of the restaurant. She’s been back a few times, but the boyfriend wrote a nasty review on yelp.”
It looks like he has a few of those on there.
Nice and sloppy 1960’s rockstar type behaviour that.
Daley says it’s different to the 80’s or 90’s now. “When I was young I cooked and smelled like food, and I couldn’t get anyone to talk to me. It was only guys like Jean-Georges or David Bouley or Rocco DiSpirito who partied with models. Now the field has been opened.”
Celebrated French chef Laurent Tourondel has even had a woman somehow get his number and text pictures of herself in lingerie from the dining room as he was working in the kitchen.
“It was definitely the chef factor,” says the reserved Tourondel, who won’t reveal how the encounter ended. “I didn’t ask for that to happen, but I was not upset about it.”
Chef Marc Forgione who won The Next Iron Chef couldn’t believe how many people watched that show. While he was working recently a woman told the server “after the meal we just had, if the chef came out, I’d have sex with him in front of my husband!” says Forgione. The husband said “after that meal, I wouldn’t mind watching!”
Many cooks are surprised by the reactions they elicit, others are soaking it up and rolling with it by the sounds.
