It's enticing to get a glimpse into the real lives of our favorite celebs, and celebrity
chefs are no exception. Here's a peek inside the home kitchens of some of the biggest stars
in food, so you can know how they cook when they're not in front of the camera.
Love him or hate him, Bobby Flay has been on TV screens for years, and he was one of
the first celebrity chefs many of us welcomed into our homes. In 2017, he invited Today
into his home in the Hamptons, and he revealed that he actually has two kitchens, one indoors
and one outdoors.
The indoor kitchen is set up to have a definite cafe vibe, with plenty of seating at several
round tables and more alongside a giant kitchen island. There's a giant white brick fireplace,
plenty of storage space, and everything is decorated in an ultra-modern teal, cream,
and silver. But, he says, that's not his favorite place to cook and entertain.
That's in the outdoor kitchen, and it's just downright envy-inducing. There's everything
he could possibly need to whip up a lunch, and when he cooks lunch, it takes a while.
"I cook lunches here, sort of all summer long. We have long lunches. So lunch starts at 1:30
and it goes to about 7."
There's a fridge and a sink, of course, several grills, and most importantly, a pizza oven
that takes a full three hours to heat up. It gets put to regular and good use, too,
he frequently entertains dozens of people at a time.
Giada De Laurentiis' home and specifically, her gorgeous kitchen, is exactly what you
would expect to see her coming home to. It's ultra sleek and super modern, with a gray,
black, silver, and white color palette that's every bit as glamorous and welcoming as she is.
First, the counter space. There's enough there that it's going to make anyone and everyone
jealous, even if you've just designed your own dream kitchen. There are a ton of cabinets,
from floor to ceiling, and still more inside a huge center island. There are also plenty
of plants sitting in the windows, and a massive sofa not too far away from that massive island,
perfect for hanging out on while everything's in the oven. It's the sort of kitchen where
you just know Sunday mornings are spent making brunch treats and parties of all shapes and
sizes are hosted.
Jamie and Jools Oliver didn't spare any expense when it came time to buy a house to raise
their brood of children, and in 2016, they purchased a North London home worth about
$11.4 million. That price tag and the location is a bit deceiving, as the kitchen looks like
it was plucked out of an English country home rather than one nestled in the country's biggest city.
Pots and pans hang from the plain white walls, and plates fill in the unreachable gap up
to the high, pitched ceiling. There's plenty of workspace, including a massive, chunky
wooden island and a long dining room table. It's more low-key and quiet than you might
expect from a celebrity chef, but if there's one thing that definitely looks right at home
in Jamie Oliver's kitchen, it's a framed picture on the wall reminding everyone to "Eat Your
Greens." That's easy for his family, they have a giant vegetable garden, too.
Fans and followers of Gordon Ramsay and his family might recognize the kitchen of their
London home. According to Ideal Home, it's been featured in quite a few shows, including
Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch. Despite its status as a television setting, it's still
got a definite lived-in feel. It' s clearly for family dinners, birthday parties, and
gatherings of friends, not for display. There are all the knick-knacks, books, and family
photos you'd expect in any home kitchen.
It's open and airy, bright and colorful, and classy, all at the same time. Yes, there's
rows of copper pots hanging from the ceiling, and there's also enough counter space to make
everyone jealous. The color scheme is sage green and black with other dashes of color,
and there never seems to be a shortage of flowers. It looks like a kitchen that anyone
and everyone would feel right at home in, grabbing one of the green chairs and pulling
it up to the counter for a cup of coffee.
Ina Garten, better known as the Barefoot Contessa, has a setup in East Hampton
that most people can only dream of. According to Blue and White Home, her sprawling estate
is both home and office. In addition to their main house, she also had a "barn" built for
entertaining and for filming.
"That's my commute. It's about 100 yards, I think. Maybe less. Maybe 50."
The barn is a gorgeous building decorated in wood and white, one that most people would
be perfectly happy to have as their main residence. It's the one you see on TV, with finishing
touches like lamps on the counter and a massive butcher block. It's also the one that she
shares most on her Instagram, but there's another kitchen that's less frequently shared.
Town & Country reports that she also has an apartment in Manhattan, and in early 2018
she shared a photo of her new stove, complete with a pot rack. It looks gorgeous, sure,
but it's a huge deal. Garten reportedly partnered with a family-run French company called Lacanche
to commission the $15,000 stove, which is one of only a relatively small number of units
produced for American customers.
If there's any celebrity chef you might expect to have flames painted on the front of his
stove and racing stripes down his countertops, it's Guy Fieri. And you wouldn't be too far
off from the truth. But there's more to it.
According to CheatSheet, Fieri and his family have lived in the same Santa Rosa home for
decades, after he bought the rustic-looking "fixer-upper" without consulting his wife
first. Now, the sprawling home has a stylish and modern interior. And the kitchen is definitely
no exception, with dark wood cabinets, dark green countertops, and a few very cool, special
features. Some, like the his-and-hers refrigerators, aren't something most might aspire to having,
but other things, like a digital jukebox, a huge flat top, and sinks controlled by foot
pedals, are pretty cool. He also has a massive 27,500-BTU Viking gas wok burner because he
hates waiting for things. We can all relate to that, too.
Fans are used to seeing Rachael Ray in the giant kitchen set of her television show,
but her real kitchen is far more modest. She told The Wall Street Journal,
"If I put my arms out, I can reach from my refrigerator to my stove."
The next time you think your kitchen is small, just remember that it's probably bigger than hers.
"Because the refrigerator's so tiny. We needed an auxiliary fridge, so there's a little one
hidden in the cupboard there."
It's just as quirky and fun as she is, too. The kitchen, which is a part of her 1,800-square-foot
home in New York City's East Village, has glass-fronted gray cabinets, dark blue appliances,
and fun, funky orange mosaic tiles for a backsplash. She found those while she was in Italy, and
the colorful mosaic perfectly matches the equally colorful dishware, towels, and bright
orange kettles. It's tiny, sure, but Ray and her husband, John Cusimano, absolutely love
it. She says the home, which features about one room on each of the narrow six stories,
feels like a treehouse, and she's not going anywhere, she says, until people, quote, "carry
me out of it in a box."
Emeril Lagasse is another one of those celebrity chefs that you can absolutely picture hanging
out in his kitchen cooking for his entire family, and he does. There's even Instagram
evidence that his footwear of choice is flip-flops, and while we're pretty sure that wouldn't
fly in most commercial kitchens, he's Emeril, and he doesn't have to care.
"Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"'
When Lagasse traded New York for the Gulf Coast of Florida, he got a home that completely
captured the feel of hot and sunny Florida days, with a kitchen so light, open, and airy
that you can almost smell the sea breeze. Everything is white, silver, and cream, save
for the blue granite countertops in the center and butcher block along the prep areas. And
yes, those are copper pans within easy reach, and those are a whole bunch of sauces, seasonings,
and oils all in a wooden tray also within easy reach. The dining room is just as elegant
and chic, with the same color scheme and plenty of French accent pieces. It's Old World charm
meets Florida coastal paradise.
Is Ted Allen's home kitchen as classy and as well put-together as he is? Absolutely.
Food & Wine sat down with Allen and his partner, Barry Rice, an interior decorator. And it
looks exactly like you would expect a kitchen to look when it's been put together in a collaboration
between a designer and a culinary professional.
The house dates back to the 19th century, but you would never know it from the ultra-modern
kitchen with its stainless steel, granite, and dark wood. The massive stove is built
into the kitchen island, and there's a super comfortable-looking bench sitting opposite
the island. The light fixtures use xenon bulbs instead of halogen to cut down on the heat.
There's also three sinks, and they're all operated with foot pedals because, Allen says,
"I'm a fanatic about food safety."
Andrew Zimmern might be known for eating the world's most bizarre foods, but when it comes
to his own home kitchen it's pretty down-to-earth, at least at at first glance. When he gave
a tour of his kitchen, he showed off a space that any one of his fans would feel completely
at home in. There was plenty of white, cream, and stainless steel, and a refrigerator covered
with magnets, papers, and stickers. The entire thing, right down to the ceramic Pillsbury
Doughboy on the fridge, has a very down-home, country kitchen sort of feel.
The really interesting stuff is in the cupboards: olive oils smuggled home from around the world,
vinegars from just as many countries, a ton of salsa, and another ton of noodles brought
back from his trips. There's dried rare chilis of India, seaweed, honey from Guatemala, Syria,
and Iran, teas, duck fat, all sorts of fermented and pickled things, and "indispensable" coffee syrup.
In 2019, Alex Guarnaschelli built a brand new kitchen in her home backed by the experience,
know-how, and bankroll of a professional chef. The results are gorgeous, a kitchen you would
never expect to find in a Bridgehampton, New York farmhouse originally built in 1925. She
told Food & Wine that she was very, very adamant about what she wanted in her kitchen: a ton
of wide open, empty space, and a lot of light because she had spent decades working in rooms
with no windows and no natural light.
Her other must-haves included a wine fridge, two sink-and-dishwasher combos, a ton of outlets,
transparent cabinets, and a sink that's close to the stove. All that's wrapped up in a package
that's mostly beige and stainless steel with red highlights, a mix of vintage Americana
with a super-modern feel.
The Great British Bake Off is a massive hit on both sides of the pond, and watching the
most delicious baked goods coming together on-screen is almost therapeutic. You might
imagine the judges heading home to their own quaint English countryside homes, and in the
case of Prue Leith, you would be absolutely correct.
She's been in the same home for decades, and she describes her gorgeous house in the Cotswolds
like this:
"It was a big old house with a ramshackle garden with the bones of good design still
visible in the trees and hedges."
It sounds like something out of the pages of a 19th century novel, certainly, but it's
very real.
So, what about her kitchen? It's very open, lined with shelves and racks where everything
sits out in plain sight and within easy reach, from jars and coffee mugs, to pots, pans,
and utensils. There's plenty of workspace and a view outside, with wood floors, granite
countertops, and plenty of light, just exactly what you would expect to see in her home.
It's impossible to overstate the importance Julia Child played in shaping the culinary
landscape. And even though she passed away in 2004, you can still see and visit her kitchen.
In 2001, she donated it to the Smithsonian.
It's gorgeous and comforting at the same time, even though, according to Bio, she had everything
built to her 6-foot-2 stature. So the counters are slightly higher than normal, and everything's
just a little bigger.
There's all kinds of little touches in the kitchen, decorated in such a brilliantly retro
set of 1950s-era colors. Copper pots and pans hang on the wall, each in their spot designated
by husband Paul Child. The kitchen was originally in her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
was turned into a set for filming the last of her television shows.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite
TV chefs are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't
miss a single one.