TELEVISION has a way of shaping your ideas of people and their persona. Take celebrity chef Anne Burrell, who is a staple on Food Network and a favourite among local food enthusiasts. We thought that because of her blonde spiky mane and larger-than-life persona she would be the bubbly, outspoken, fun-loving character in person that we see on television. But Anne is that and so much more.
The chef, who has made a name for herself in a profession often dominated by men, is living the life that she’s fashioned on her own terms. Her rock star style comes across in everything she does, even her entrance to the cooking demonstration she did at Hilton Barbados, where she came in dancing and rocking to Rihanna. So it’s easy to understand why she chose Cook Like A Rock Star as the title of her first cookbook.
It’s easy to imagine that the woman who always has a funny quip or earns the label as the most gregarious one in the room doesn’t have a serious bone in her body. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Her passion is food.
“I love what I do,” Anne told EASY magazine. “I feel so very lucky to be able to make a living doing what I love to do. I feel like the Energizer Bunny; people just wind me up and I just talk to people about food. I would talk to that tree about food if I could. People respond well to it, so they keep asking me to show up at more and more stuff.”
Anne, who dubs herself and her work as a personal pleasure provider, knows the comfort people get from food, whether it’s eating or preparing. She herself is at home in the kitchen, offering anecdotes and information about leeks and onions, and making the guests watching her cooking demo realize the culinary value in the shell of a jumbo shrimp.
From early in Anne’s life, her passion seemed to point her in the direction of the kitchen and cooking. She enrolled in the culinary institute of America and then spent a year attending the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners while working at La Bottega del 30 and La Taverna del Lupo in Umbria before returning to New York.
Perhaps it was her stint in culinary school that made her determined to make a name for herself in the male-dominated culinary world.
“It is a man’s world and it will always be that way,” she says of her profession. “To me it’s very important to maintain your femininity but also be respected. It’s hard for girls in the first place, and if you act like a girl then people will just roll right over you. It’s really just a fine line to walk from being a pushover and being a bitch, and you have to find your own way and make that work for you. Quite honestly that’s knowledge. If you show that you know more and work harder, people will respect you for that and then you don’t have to be a bitch.”
Anne was quick to offer some very salient advice to budding female chefs in the audience on everything from working harder than their male counterparts, to making sure they are able to carry their own stock pots, and never, ever, ever allowing the men around you to see you cry even if you’re on the verge of tears.
“Don’t ever do it,” she warned. “Go to the bathroom, excuse yourself, bawl if you have to in there, but don’t ever let them see that you’ve lost your composure.”
Keeping her composure, along with being good at what she does, has earned Anne top jobs at several New York City restaurants such as Savoy and Lumi restaurants. She even accepted a job at Italian Wine merchants, a stint that led to her alliance with renowned chef Mario Battali. When Mario was tapped for Food Network’s Iron Chef, he brought Anne along as one of his sous chefs.
Anne tried unsuccessfully in 2011 to earn her place among the Iron Chefs on Next Iron Chefs: Super Chef.
“That still stings about not making Iron Chef,” she revealed. “I worked really hard during the competition, but I still haven’t gotten over that loss.”
For now Anne has to be content with keeping her position as Mario’s sous chef, as she prepares for a new season of Food Network’s Secrets Of A Restaurant Chef, Chef Wanted and as a co-host of Worst Cooks In America, a prime-time reality show where Anne leads a team of hopeless home cooks around the country through culinary boot camp.
“Working hard never stops,” she says. “In a restaurant and working in a kitchen is a very fluid thing; it always needs to be tended and watched. It’s not, like, all right, I’ve got it here, so I don’t have to pay attention to that anymore. Every dish is a brand new start.”
