I've walked by many 'celebrity chef's ' restaurants, but never actually ate in any of them. Most dont serve anything that Ill eat, and if they do, its likely not worth the money to get the token vegetarian item they have to have on the menu to appeal to everyone.
I have tasted some of their foods at cooking demos, and it was good, but no better or worse than anything I've eaten elsewhere.
One of the Food Network shows that started to put me off was that show where they are looking for the "Next Food Network Star". It's a reality show where they compete to get their own television show on the food network. It wasn't the contestants that annoyed me, but the judges. They were focussed too much on the persons personality, story telling, appearance and other celebrity qualities, and less on their actual cooking ability. I guess for entertainment and ratings purposes, I get it. But for the person who is just interested in learning something, it fell short. At that point I viewed the rest of their shows differently, and watching how it was more celebrity - ratings based than quality cooking and education. Sure, I get it, need ratings to get the sponsors to pay the bills, but its not what Im interested in.
I remember one of the early winners got a show which basically focussed on making a meal for like $10 ( I dont remember exactly, but something like this). What annoyed me, is she would talk about how her family just got back from Europe and all these exotic places ( nothing wrong with that), and then she would go on about making a cheap meal, often using ingredients that everyone should have on hand in their fridge , which were often expensive ingredients and would clearly run up the price if included in the cost of the meal. Just wasn't realistic or accurate ( and the recipes weren't that great either).
I remember back in the day when I was a student and limited myself to $3 a meal. I had no income, and my wife made like $6 or $7 an hour. Trust me, I knew how to make a cheap meal, and where to shop to get the best value for my money. I also wasn't flying back and forth to Europe, nor did I have expensive ingredients in my fridge or pantry. Whats great is, it forced me to be creative, and to this day, I still make some of the things I made when I was broke ( sure with a some extras I couldn't afford back in the day, but my limitations and creativity were able to produce some decent meals).