Celebrity Chef Restaurant Empires: How Different Groups Stack Up

Today's HuffPost Food feature "The Rise Of The Emperor-Chefs" makes it clear that celebrity chefs are at something of a crossroads. Some are getting heat for opening more restaurants than they can handle, and others wish they could just go back to owning one small restaurant. But at the same time, empire building by celebrity chefs shows no sign of stopping any time soon. Vegas may have softened a little as a magnet for top chefs -- but Miami and Singapore are as hot as ever. (The latter's Marina Bay Sands hotel-casino complex hosts restaurants by Tetsuya Wakuda, Daniel Boulud and Mario Batali.)

And some nascent empires are opening locations in unconventional restaurant cities. David Chang of Momofuku, for example, is opening his first international restaurant in Sydney, Australia -- and his second in Toronto, Canada. And the Middle East and Indian subcontinents are still, to a large degree, untouched by celebrity chef empires. DBGB Mumbai, anyone?

But these new emperor-chefs have a ways to catch up to some of the old guard celebrity chefs. Using information from chefs' restaurant group websites, we've assembled our list of the top 17 emperor chefs, ranked by number of restaurants throughout the world. There are a lot of familiar faces on there -- but the biggest few aren't necessarily who you'd think. Click through to find out who made it -- and check out "The Rise Of The Emperor-Chefs" while you're at it.

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Comments

[GeorgiaVeteran]

08:39 PM on 09/27/2011

Measuring success by the number of restaurants is absurd.
Colonel Sanders was a celebrity and his "empire" dwarfs the empires of these celebrity chefs.

These celebrity chefs rarely cook anymore. The quality will be a combination of the menu, the execution, the service and the ambiance. Puck's Express restaurant in Atlanta closed almost before it opened. Emeril's has suffered the same fate here.

Please work harder and dig up some real news of interest.

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

12:39 AM on 09/28/2011

And their retail products are atrociuos.

[gypsynomad]

05:14 PM on 09/27/2011

If that`s true how they have time for the afternoon ~chew~, I am boycottin` that show...

[MuckyPup]

03:21 PM on 09/27/2011

So there's a whole bunch of restaurants I'll stay away from.

[BlindChance]

01:52 PM on 09/27/2011

All men. This is very sad in 2011.

[19ArabPatsies]

01:50 PM on 09/27/2011

I like Nigella Lawson .

Nigella talks dirty here. quite funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtS2Ikk7A9I&feature=player_embedded

[joetherealist]

04:15 PM on 09/28/2011

Cannot Stop Laughing!

[MagnusUnda]

01:32 PM on 09/27/2011

Bobby flay has like a dozen bobby's burger palaces which should be counted if you're counting all the puck outlets

[SalesmanForLife]

01:30 PM on 09/27/2011

I prefer privatly and locally owned restaurants, I did my Celeb Chef thing years ago. How Emeril is on any list of "good" is beyond me. His restaurant in New Orleans had aweful food. Mario is blah...the best ones on this list are rated lower on the "rate your favorite".

The top 5 are just aweful.

[Erasmus Funderburke]

01:39 PM on 09/27/2011

Wow. Couldn't disagree with you more about Emeril and Mario Batali, or spelling for that matter. Emeril's Steakhouse is much better than Flay's or Palmer's (no idea how Charlie Palmer is on here... I guess they forgot Sizzler, too). Batali's restaurant's are great.

A lot of people don't like creole cuisine and that's fine. But don't blame the chef for your tastes.

[SalesmanForLife]

01:55 PM on 09/27/2011

Agreed, my spelling is out of hand!! I have done the Emeril thing, its ugly. Batali is so corporate that, well, it is just corporate. I respect your opinion and I really understand but for me, there are options other than these giants.

[raker]

01:22 PM on 09/27/2011

I'd rather dine at an individually owned and operated restaurant any day. Although, dinner at Babbo was stupendous. Still, some of those corporate restaurant "empires" feel inauthentic, like a Disney-ish imitation of the idea of dining in a nice restaurant.

[JenniferWest]

04:52 PM on 09/27/2011

Babbo IS a neighborhood restaurant, in a real neighborhood owned by Batali.

[raker]

05:44 PM on 09/27/2011

I said I liked Babbo. Loved it, actually. The food was incredible. Even the service was exceptional—perfect professionalism, no fake-cheerful "Hi guys! My name is Zach! Can I bring you guys anything?" that is the hallmark of the corporate restaurant outlet. Horrors. Bravo to Batali. But in general, give me a one-off place with an owner/chef in the kitchen and a professional wait staff who make the evening about my pleasure and not theirs and I'm a happy diner, because the food and service are likely to be wonderful.

[Jack Daniels Esq]

01:22 PM on 09/27/2011

Wolfgang has always been a chef with flair - tough to beat anywhere - salmon pizza was king

[Jeffin90019]

12:57 PM on 09/27/2011

Yeah, I want to learn to cook like Mario Batali so that I can be a sweaty, morbidly obese clown in orange shoes.

[GraphicMatt]

01:00 PM on 09/27/2011

As opposed to just being a regular clown making inane comments? Cooking like him isn't going to cause anyone to turn into him.

[Jeffin90019]

01:34 PM on 09/27/2011

Surely he eats his own cooking. And look what it did for him. No thanks.

[Venmaker1]

01:40 PM on 09/27/2011

Well to his credit he has lost weight.

[chaucer1]

12:53 PM on 09/27/2011

Celebrity chefs are a pain. Avoid their places at all cost. They're even worse on TV, too.

[Mudge]

12:53 PM on 09/27/2011

While a chef may have great talent, an empire doesn't. Many of the troughs in these empires are really mediocre. The bigger the empire the worse the food. Many approach the mediocrity of suburban strip mall chains but cost 4 times as much for a meal, but with valet parking.

[dmsdzinr]

12:49 PM on 09/27/2011

Michael Symon! GO Cleveland.

[edwoodjr]

12:31 PM on 09/27/2011

Why "17"?

[brownfrown]

12:41 PM on 09/27/2011

There are two guys that are tied for the 16th spot.

[bmwracer]

03:14 PM on 09/27/2011

Only 17 made monetary contributions... :P

[hyaofcr]

11:10 AM on 09/27/2011

I luuuuvs me some Gordon Ramsey! : )