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CNN Sunday Morning

Celebrity Chefs Top Food TV

Aired June 30, 2002 - 10:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Who would have thought that slaving over a hot stove could make you a star? Well, if you can stand the heat, it's a big business.

Our Femi Oke talked to some celebrity chefs at the annual food and wine classic in Aspen, Colorado.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Star chefs like Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck and Jacques Pepin are the top of the food television chain.

CLAUDINE PEPIN, TV HOST: Chefs are now celebrities, which is really bizarre, I think.

JACQUES PEPIN, CHEF: I'm a celebrity.

C. PEPIN: You're a celebrity. And I forget, when I'm out on the street with my fiance and people go, "Oh, I love your show."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, it's perfect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

J. PEPIN: My daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, the one you always -- you treat her so mean.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She keeps you in your place?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, we love your program.

J. PEPIN: Thank you.

C. PEPIN: A woman came up to my father, and wept and almost fainted, because she was standing in his presence.

J. PEPIN: And my wife was next door and she tell her, "get a life."

I cook in the kitchen for so many years, and all of a sudden, you know, people look at you, think you're some type of genius.

OKE: People pay to watch Jacques Pepin at work. The fans flock to see the chef who has cooked for Charles de Gaulle (ph) and President Kennedy.

The celebrity name-dropping continues when it comes to Hollywood chefs to the stars -- Wolfgang Puck.

WOLFGANG PUCK, CHEF: Cooking should be fun. It shouldn't be a chore, where you go into the kitchen and say, "Oh my god." Cooking should be like making love. You should have a good time and do it with passion.

OKE: Wolfgang's passion for food has created a huge empire.

WOLFGANG: We have 12 white tablecloth restaurants from Chicago to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hawaii. We got Spago for (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Then we have the Wolfgang Puck cafes. Then we have the Wolfgang Puck express, like at the airport. Then we sell on "Home Shopping" pots and pans, and in a few stores, also. I write cookbooks, I do a television show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He signed it to me and my 4-year-old daughter who absolutely loves his show. She loves to say, "hello, everybody" just like Wolfgang does.

WOLFGANG: Even we have 3,500 people working for us. But what I really love is to cook.

OKE: And fortunately for Wolfgang and his fellow celebrity chefs, the public loves them, too.

Femi Oke, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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