Do celebrity chefs like Lagasse and Besh actually cook in their restaurants...

If you actually find them cooking now it would be only for a publicity stunt. One night wen Emeril's first opened my wife and I had dinner at the food bar overlooking the kitchen. I had a friend who worked there who had come over with Emeril from Commander's Palace so we were getting the red carpet treatment. Emeril was right in front of us doing all the cooking. He was carrying on a conversation with us the whole time. Many times when he finished a dish for someone else he would taste it himself and spoon a little sample of it on to our plates. I think we tried just about everything on the menu that night. Then after dessert he sent us glasses of one of his best Vintage Ports. It was quite an experience. That was a long time ago.

They do a bit when a new restaurant opens I'm sure for a few days, but other than that not really.

More management and promotion.

Seldom, that's what line cooks are for. Sous chefs are for operations & Chefs de Cuisine are for administration.

Chef/Owners that have multiple units are too busy to stand around cooking. But every so often they take the time to stop and smell the sautéed onions!

Torry McPhail is very hands on in Commander's kitchen.

Let me ask you this question, do you understand how kitchens work? Since Escoffier established the brigade system, no single one cook cooks all of your meal. The typical modern kitchen uses cooks, sous chefs, and and expediter to cook food. Are there nights when a celebrity chef works the expo station? Yes. Are there nights when they work the line? Maybe. But in the vast majority of kitchens, be it celebrity or neighborhood, cooks with bo names cook the food.

So what does it really matter who is expoing if the food is the same?

I've been to Emerils twice, Emeril was cooking in the kithchen both times, but that was many years ago.

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I read an article recently where Emeril said he's enjoying not having as much business and tv show stuff to do and has been in his restaurants more often

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He was on the kitchen on Friday and had a fresh stain on his apron when he came out so must have been doing something

Yes. The guy expoing at say an Emeril or Link or Batali restaurant (and effectively the exec chef) probably has a better eye and taste bud of what the named guy wants than the named guy has. These are usually long term lieutenants who have worked their way up. So in essence, is the celebrity chef "cooking" your meal? Maybe by osmosis.

Yeah I think it's here and there

Bobby Flay was cooking steaks when my wife and I ate at Mesa Grill years ago in NYC