Estimated Net Worth: $70 Million
Restaurant: Emeril’s New Orleans
As Seen On: Essence of Emeril
A celebrity chef, restaurateur, TV personality, writer, and National Best Recipe award winner for his ‘Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili’ recipe in 2003, Emeril Lagasse has created a food empire and is probably one of the richest chefs in the world. His Creole and Cajun-style cuisine, dubbed “New New Orleans” has earned him a regional James Beard Award.
Lagasse has appeared on several cook shows, most notably the Food Network shows “Emeril Live” and “Essence of Emeril.” His shows are famous for their many catchphrases such as “Kick it up a notch!” and “Bam!”. The Massachusetts-born chef has an estimated annual revenue of US$150 million. He truly is the king of the kitchen
Wolfgang Puck
Estimated Net Worth: $75 Million
Restaurant: Spago
As Seen On: Cooking Class with Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck is an Austrian-born chef, restaurateur, and actor who learned the ins and outs of the kitchen from his pastry chef mother. At the age of 24, he decided to move to the States, where he got his start in Los Angeles. In 1982 he opened up his first restaurant — Spago. The restaurant became a major hit when in 1993, it was inducted into the Nation's Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame.
The following year it received the James Beard Restaurant of the Year Award. Puck's hit show on the Food Network earned a 2001-2002 Daytime Emmy for Oustanding Service Show. In 2009 and 2009 Spago was awarded two Michelin stars. He currently lives in LA and runs a string of restaurants across the country, including Spago, The Cut, and several eponymous chains.
Damaris Phillips
Estimated Net Worth: $3 million
Restaurant: N/A
As Seen On: The Bobby and Damaris Show
The American chef and TV personality was the 2013 winner of the Food Network series competition, "Food Network Star." The Food Network awarded Damaris's TV with yet another show named "Southern at Heart." The show ran for 6 six seasons, giving rise to Phillips' popularity. She then joined the majorly popular American TV chef, Bobby Flay for the show aptly named "The Bobby and Damaris Show."
The Southern belle Phillips married Darrick Wood, a vegetarian. Since her marriage, she has put a lot of her culinary efforts into combining southern cuisine with vegetarian dishes and even wrote a cookbook on the subject named "Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy: Down Home Classics for Vegetarians (and the Meat Eaters Who Love Them)."
Rick Bayless
Estimated Net Worth: $30 Million
Restaurant: Frontera Grill
As Seen On: Iron Chef America
This Oklahoma-born all-American boy is known as the expert on all Mexican Cuisine. While this sounds a little unexpected, his many foodie fans wholeheartedly agree. Bayless really strives for authenticity but adds a modern approach. He even lived in Mexico from 1980 to 1986. It was there that he wrote his first book, "Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico." But Bayless is probably most widely known from the PBS series "Mexico: One Plate at a Time."
The Mexican meal master had a run on Iron Chef America where he, of course, worked on his specialty Mexican dishes. Most importantly, Bayless is lauded by the food community mostly for championing Mexican cuisine and giving it its rightful place in the world of fine dining.
Graham Elliot
Estimated Net Worth: $1.5 million
Restaurant: Graham Elliot Bistro
As Seen On: Top Chef
This Seattle-based chef is a bit of a prodigy. All before the age of thirty, Graham Elliot won several awards from the James Beard Foundation, was the youngest American to get four stars in a major restaurant review, and was a contestant on both "Top Chef Masters" and "Iron Chef." Well, he has been in kitchens since 1997.
In addition to that, he is the owner of a unique Chicago restaurant that combines French fine dining and casual-style cafe. This guy is not only a star in the kitchen but also has quite a flair for music as he plays guitar and even sings!