His own kind of honour: reluctant celebrity chef Michael Van de Elzen

ABSTRACT

Australasian chef Michael Van de Elzen provides a valuable Antipodean insight into chef celebrity. Within an emic perspective, this article explores his antinomic celebrity experiences. Michael’s contradictions and anxieties emerge within the dilemma he experiences in being a chef celebrity yet not wanting to be a celebrity chef. Language nuance reflects his dilemma. We explore Michael’s lived celebrity experience using an adapted version of a well known celebrity framework. Michael’s celebrity is revealed as he negotiates the antinomy between his ‘culinary self’ and his ‘celebrity self’. We extend this binary to include Michael’s ‘private self’. Michael Van de Elzen’s antinomies are embodied within his celebrity chef status. This triptych simultaneously motivates and detracts from his celebrity experience. Consequently, our article illuminates a domain that is often ignored in the ‘scramble’ of celebrity: celebrity reluctance, anxiety and avoidance. Within a qualitative framework, the article presents his career, illuminating his struggle. Our work contributes towards a wider understanding of how celebrity chefs negotiate celebrity’s negative aspects, and extends Rockwell and Giles’ celebrity framework.

KEYWORDS:

• Celebrity chef
• identity
• anxious chef
• chef antimony
• media
• reluctant celebrity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. All quotes from Michael Van de Elzen from researcher interview and transcription January 2016.

2. A mobile soft-serve ice-cream vendor.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben Nemeschansky

Ben Nemeschansky is a Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Ben’s research interests include restaurant financial management and menu engineering.

Lindsay Neill

Lindsay Neill is a Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Lindsay holds research interest in food sociology, vernacular culture and identity.

Scott Wright

Scott Wright is a Lecturer in Culinary Arts at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Scott has 30 years of industry experience and recent experience researching celebrity chefs and the construct of compulscelebrity.

Monique Brocx

Monique Brocx is a Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Management at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Monique’s research includes the Visiting Friends and Relatives tourist segment and the Dutch migrant impact on New Zealand’s hospitality industry.