How do celebrity chefs get their status?

First up, they need to know what they are doing, not necessarily be the best in their field, but just know what the average person does not. Second, they need to be a confident person who is entertaining and who loves the attention. Third and the biggest I think, is that they need to be clever marketers. They need to have the ability to market themselves well, so that they get noticed by the right people. I am not sure if any of these shows have auditions to see who is going to be their chef or if the shows are built to suit a particular chef?

I have no idea... as I have never heard those shows. Usually I watch the ones on PBS as I don't have paid tv. I know most of them own their own restaurants and have written their own cook books. Perhaps someone read their book and went to their restaurant and was impressed? I dunno how it all works. I"m not famous so I have no idea how one gets discovered or that I have a talent worth discovering.

I love watching the biographies of some of the "food network" stars because they all had different backgrounds and made their way to the top in many different ways. They all have talent and ability to be creative and that's what gives them their start. Some just did a lot of cooking at home or learned from their other family members (like grandma) and some went to culinary school to learn proper technique. When we see them on the television, we often think that they are overnight successes, but that is usually not the case. Most of them have worked in different restaurants under the supervision of a master chef. They get their experience by cooking every day. Also a warm and "big personality" is important. Sometimes people can be very creative, but if they aren't able to talk and entertain, they will never make it on television. Chefs can be "discovered" just by having another chef taste their cooking or by auditioning for some of the reality challenge shows.

Hi moonchild, I'm a big Gordon Ramsey fan and he got pretty famous for his cooking before he has a TV show. He got the right stars on his own restuarant then pretty much made his name when he threw Joan Collins and the famours UK food critic AA Gill out of his restaurant, they probably did something really crass like ask for salt. Of course AA did a big write up about it, and Gordon ended up on TV. But then he made it big with his shows and books and played up his cantankerous side.

Well there are different ways of going about it that is for sure. For the competitions there is probably an audition of some sort, submit your application. For Iron Chef, you may have to meet some other qualifications, such as owning/operating your own recognized restaurant for a number of years. Some Chefs are just really really good at what they do. Such as Thomas Keller. One of the best Chef's in the world, just really good at what he does. Critics come to where he works, like the food, word of mouth gets them there, and if they are impressed they write good things, which brings people out in troves. Cheers.