in_the_media

Chefs are the new artists, says Temple's Simon

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Philadelphia Inquirer

For hundreds of years, a chef's life was toil; working in hot kitchens for years, with little notoriety. But ever since Julia Child, the chef has enjoyed a steady rise in celebrity status. "Chefs have been elevated to celebrity as they've become, in many ways, the new artists of our moment," said Bryant Simon, a professor of history and American studies at Temple. "But this is where celebrity and art collide. We consume their personalities more than their art. More people know them from TV than the tastes they create, because so few of us can afford it."