10 Richest Celebrity Chefs With Deliciously Large Net Worths

Celebrity chefs have been a thing for decades. While they were initially popular due to their restaurants or best-selling cookbooks, it wasn’t until television and channels like the Food Network that their popularity really exploded. 

Meet the richest celebrity chefs who have bank accounts that rival those of other A-listers.

Net worth: $50 million

Bottom line: Keller began his successful career in a Palm Beach, Florida, restaurant his mother managed before relocating to France in the early 1980s, where he honed his skills in many a Michelin-starred restaurant.

He opened Rakel, his first restaurant in New York City, before moving west and taking work as an executive chef at Checkers in Los Angeles. In the early 1990s, he opened the famed French Laundry in Northern California and owns a host of other successful restaurants. 

He’s also been a consultant on many films and TV shows. 

Net worth: $60 million

Bottom line: Garten did not start out as a professional chef and had no aspirations to become one. She started cooking meals for her husband Jeffrey when she was just a teen, so it was very much a hobby for her.

In fact, Garten worked professionally as a budget analyst for Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter during their terms and flipped homes on the side. By the late 1970s, she had enough money to open the Barefoot Contessa, her food store, in New York City.

She began starring in the Food Network show of the same name, which has been running for nearly two decades now, and she has about a dozen cookbooks to her name.

Net worth: $70 million

Bottom line: Lagasse’s mother sent him on the career path of cooking — she taught him pastry and baking skills from a young age, which he parlayed into a culinary arts degree.

Right after graduating, he became an executive chef at a resort and soon owned the first of his many restaurants. 

But it was TV that brought him real fame and fortune. He has been associated with several shows and has over 20 cookbooks to his credit.  

Net worth: $100 million

Bottom line: Ray doesn’t like to describe herself as a chef, but she has the bank account to show for it. 

She began her career at the Macy’s candy counter in New York City before moving on to the Big Apple’s famed specialty food store, Agata & Valentina, but it wasn’t until her Food Network show “30 Minute Meals” that she became a household name. 

She was later given her own show and has published nearly 30 books.