Nothing changes a person like a few decades in a kitchen. Need proof? Just ask these celebrity chefs — if you can even recognize them.
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00:00Nothing changes a person like a few decades in a kitchen.
00:04Need proof? Just ask these celebrity chefs, if you can even recognize them.
00:09Back in his bizarre-foods days, Andrew Zimmern owned his whole
00:14literature-professor-on-vacation vibe when he changed his look circa the COVID-19 era.
00:20However, we got to see some funkier, sartorial choices from the former Travel Channel host.
00:26This is the last frogs of the day, huh?"
00:28Zimmern's bushy beard and larger, off-tinted glasses lean more into his classic rock-era
00:35upbringing than the more buttoned-up look he once donned on TV. And he brings an ease to
00:40the colorful and casual outfits that mark this style switch. Zimmern also appears to
00:45have lost a few pounds. He hasn't been publicly touting any diet tricks. But, as always,
00:51he has been transparent about the connection between people and food.
00:55In 2022, he became an advisor to NextGen's Foods' chicken substitute brand,
01:01Tendle. And he has often spoken about the personal and ecological benefits of a plant-based diet.
01:08For a long time, Paula Deen's image was that of a sweet,
01:11Southern grandma. Deen was known for her unapologetic love of Southern-style comfort
01:16foods that, in all honesty, were pretty high in fat. But while her decadent recipes may have
01:22seemed a little over-the-top, she always came across as being comfortable with her fuller figure.
01:27After being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2009, however,
01:31Deen cut back her calorie intake and went on medication. She shed around 40 pounds as a result,
01:37just before she stepped away from the spotlight in the wake of her infamous
01:41racial discrimination scandal in 2013.
01:44There is a potential for Paula Deen's career to collapse like a bad souffle right now."
01:49In recent years, as Deen has worked to rebuild her reputation,
01:52she has both changed up her style and become noticeably thinner.
01:56Deen often pulls her hair back and wears oversized glasses,
02:00a departure from her TV chef look of yesteryear.
02:04Nowadays, chef Kwame Nwache brings a vibrant punch-up to his wardrobe,
02:08and he approaches cooking with the same vivacity.
02:11Nwache entered the world of TV cooking when he appeared as a competitor on Top Chef Season 13.
02:17That was in 2015, when the then-26-year-old Nwache was more clean-cut and still had a bit
02:23of a baby face. After a solid run in his season, Nwache started making moves in the professional
02:30world. He opened his own restaurants, wrote his memoir, and won a James Beard award.
02:35During his stint as a recurring guest judge on Season 18 of Top Chef in 2020,
02:40his wardrobe was noticeably edgier. When asked about how his look had evolved,
02:45Nwache explained that being confined to a chef's uniform for so long
02:49made him want to embrace his flashier side.
02:53During one of his early appearances on Top Chef, Richard Blais was an even-tempered chef
02:58who loved molecular gastronomy and, for some reason, rocked a faux hawk. And in more recent
03:04years, Blais' hairstyles have journeyed to even more fantastic heights. Blais showed off an
03:10aggressively coiffed pompadour as a guest judge on the Top Chef Season 18 premiere,
03:15which quickly inspired comparisons to Johnny Bravo on Reddit. Blais' post-COVID hairstyle
03:21is still tall, but it's now styled a little more conventionally and usually paired with
03:26a short-trimmed beard.
03:28My love of exotic and tropical fruits really comes from me looking for hair inspiration."
03:34One of the most notable changes Blais has been through, however,
03:37is his physique. As an up-and-coming chef in the early 2000s,
03:41long work hours and late nights saw Blais put on some extra weight.
03:45When he met his now-wife, Jasmine, in 2004, he learned that she had been a personal trainer.
03:50This helped Blais stay motivated when it came to working out. As a result,
03:54he was able to shed 60 pounds.
03:57Cooking competition judge and acclaimed chef Graham Elliott transformed more than just his
04:02look — he changed his whole lifestyle. Elliott says that his weight has been a lifelong struggle,
04:08causing him health problems such as high blood pressure and sleep apnea.
04:11In 2013, when he weighed almost 400 pounds, he decided to have gastric sleeve surgery
04:18to facilitate weight loss. In less than a year, he dropped 150 pounds.
04:23Elliott showed up to judge Season 5 of MasterChef,
04:26looking almost unrecognizable — except for his trusty white-framed glasses, of course.
04:31Elliott said that losing the weight made it easier to play with his kids,
04:35and he no longer had to rely on a sleep apnea mask for a good night's rest.
04:39To keep the weight off, Elliott swapped his favorite junk foods like cookies and candy
04:43with more health-minded snack foods such as nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed.
04:48Elliott's weight has fluctuated in the decade-plus since his weight loss surgery,
04:52but he continues to do the work to maintain a healthier weight.
04:56Pete Evans was once a familiar face on Australian TV as the co-host of My Kitchen Rules. The show
05:03was a huge hit, and Evans soon became known as a well-dressed, pretty-boy breed of chef.
05:08His co-hosting duties on PBS's Emmy-nominated series Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking
05:14introduced him to American audiences and showed off more of his rugged side.
05:18But this was nothing compared for what was to come. In the wake of the pandemic,
05:23Evans embarked on a tireless anti-vax crusade that got him banned from various social media
05:29platforms. As his belief in conspiracy theories took over his life, he became an unkempt shadow
05:35of his former self. Until September 2023, the controversial chef was running a health retreat
05:42in the Australian foothills, where his scruffy, wild appearance seemed almost appropriate.
05:48First things first, Lazarus Lynch has always been fabulous. He came onto the culinary scene
05:54in the late 2010s as a fresh-faced competitor on Food Network's Chopped, which he won twice.
06:01That show led to several more Food Network appearances for the budding young chef.
06:05And when he began hosting Comfort Nation a couple of years later,
06:09his style choices became more expressive, fun, and stylish. Bright color, statement accessories,
06:16the chicest threads, and a cool makeup look are all part of Lynch's dress code these days.
06:22Notably, he released his first cookbook, Son of a Southern Chef, in 2019. The book brims with
06:28Lynch's splashy, fashion-forward photos, affirmations of self-love, and many of his
06:33late father's classic soul food recipes. Like his killer style, Son of a Southern Chef is unique,
06:39full of life, and unequivocally Lynch.
06:43In the 21st century, chefs and tattoos go together like cookies and cream.
06:48But Aaron Sanchez's ink goes beyond the norm. Sanchez's arms, torso, and legs are all inked up,
06:55and every tattoo Sanchez gets holds a cultural tie to his heritage,
06:59or signifies personal meaning in his life.
07:02Is there anywhere on your body that doesn't have a tattoo?
07:04Uh, I have one butt cheek that's kind of bare right now.
07:09Although Sanchez appeared more clean-cut years ago, he's been into tattoos the whole time.
07:15He owns a tattoo shop in NYC with the person who gave him his first tattoo in 1995.
07:22Speaking to the Napa Valley Register in 2015, he said,
07:26When I started cooking, like tattooing, it was considered an anti-establishment way of life.
07:31As Sanchez's culinary fame expanded, so did his literal body of work.
07:36And while his goatee and ink collection might give off a
07:39tough-guy vibe, he's actually a happy-go-lucky family man type.
07:44For Sanchez, life is about celebrating your roots,
07:47connecting with people, and finding happiness through that connection.
07:50In this way, his love of tattoos and food share a common bond.
07:55In the 1980s, Nancy Silverton worked as the pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's legendary
08:01Spago before opening a number of her own restaurants and bakeries.
08:04When she began featuring more on food television,
08:07her flair for bold fashion was impossible to ignore.
08:11Silverton's 90s look consisted of pulling her curls into a high ponytail
08:16and sporting an apron with plain clothing.
08:18As time went on, however, she tired of the mundane aesthetic.
08:22As she told The Cut,
08:24"...I have developed a deep desire to wear stylish clothes.
08:27My first restaurant job, I wore Levi's and a t-shirt.
08:30With my age and financial situation, I have been fortunate to be able to afford the clothes I love.
08:35I can put on a Marnie or even a Gucci outfit, go to work, and put on my white bark apron over it."
08:43When chef Michael O'Hare appeared on BBC2's Great British Menu in 2015,
08:48he didn't look or cook like anyone else who had been on the show.
08:53As the owner of the avant-garde Michelin star restaurant known as the Man Behind the Curtain,
08:58O'Hare seemed on track to usher in a new era of the U.K. rebel chef.
09:03"...my cooking's about creativity, about artistic freedom."
09:06Since then, a lot has changed for O'Hare, including his look.
09:10O'Hare sports a wavy blonde mane, a full departure from his TV debut look,
09:15and it was apparently years in the making.
09:17O'Hare favored a bleached version of the shag mullet for a while, cut it short,
09:22then grew it out again. Sadly, the Man Behind the Curtain closed in late 2023,
09:27by which time O'Hare was looking more like a surfer than anything else.
09:31A rebrand gave the restaurant a few more months of life, but it shut again in October 2024.
09:37Still, no matter where O'Hare ends up next, at least one thing is certain,
09:42his locks will remain as magnificent as they've ever been.
09:46Food Network star Anne Burrell wouldn't part with her blonde, spiky hair for anything,
09:51but that doesn't mean she hasn't altered her signature look over the years.
09:55Burrell has been rocking some version of her cropped, messy blonde locks for decades.
10:00As a self-proclaimed child of the 80s, she has often been more inclined to go for the unkempt
10:05look, rather than a more smoothed outtake on the above-the-chin cut. Since arriving on the
10:11celeb chef scene, Burrell has worn her hair as a wild shag, a pink-tipped hocklet, and a platinum
10:18swoop, and that isn't the only way she's changed her look. Around 2017, Burrell showed off a slimmer
10:25figure. When she was asked to spill some details on her weight loss secrets, her strategies seemed
10:30pretty basic. She stays active, enjoys berries and yogurt in the morning, only eats healthy snacks,
10:36and makes well-rounded meals from scratch at home.