A Page from the Life of History’s First Celebrity Chef

The celebrity chef trend isn’t new to the 21st century. Marie-Antoine Careme is considered the first celebrity chef in the world, and he lived back in the late 18th and early 19th century. He rose from just a kitchen boy for a Parisian chophouse at the age of 8 to probably the most popular patissier among the social elite of Paris, France, so much so that even the great Napoleon Bonaparte requested his services.

The Right Contacts Make the Difference

The key point in Careme’s life came at age 15 when he became an apprentice to a famous patissier, Sylvain Bailly, in a high society neighbourhood in Paris. Bailly was highly influential in Careme’s development as a highly sought after chef. But it wasn’t just on the baking table that Bailly exerted his influence.

In fact, Careme’s informal education owes a lot to Bailly. Bailly’s encouragement made Careme educate himself on various aspects. It was at the Bibliotheque Nationale that Careme spent his free time studying books on architecture and art. That would prove crucial in his culinary career. Art and architecture impressed him so much that he incorporated what he saw in the books into his baking. Careme started making pastry shaped in the form of famous buildings and various architectural attractions.

Pastry Replicas of Architectural Marvels

While he was still a teenager, Careme would create pastry replicas of Chinese fortresses and Athenian architectural ruins out of crumbled confectionary. Some of these edible replicas towered 4 feet high! All these made Bailly’s bakery a much sought after place among Parisians, who would just gaze at the window of the bakery to view these masterpieces being displayed. All it took was marzipan, sugar and pastry.

All that elaborate baking made him one of the early exponents of grande cuisine, a genre of French cuisine specializing in the high art. Careme later started his own shop called the “Patisserie de la rue de la Paix.” The astronomic rise of Careme is a testament to the promise the career of a chef holds. It also offers a lesson in what separates a chef from a cook – imagination and a desire to push the boundaries.

Peter Theodorou has certainly done a great deal of that to become one of the most well-known chefs in the United States. So can you. Remember, there’s more than just education and a college degree for being a successful chef – there is imagination!