13 Freaky Food Celebrity Masks
Halloween is just around the corner and it's time to start thinking seriously about what or who you want to be. Are you a food lover, but don't want to dress up as food? Are you obsessed with Food Network stars or Michelin-approved chefs? Then these masks are for you! Choose one of the celebrity chefs on our list for your Halloween costume and enhance your costume with something that the chef might cook.
Celebrity chefs are so fun to dress up as because people will recognize you, but you won't have to worry about someone having the same costume as you. Whether it's Julia Child or the pizza rat, we have the most hysterical 2015 food masks. Be sure to do your research, so every little detail can help show your friends what famous culinary hero you're impersonating this Halloween. You can also turn any of these costumes into a family affair and dress everyone up as a separate food star. Some of these food celebrities are spooky in their own right, but add in a butcher knife or a cast-iron pan and your Halloween costume will freak everyone out.
Click here for this year's Food Celebrity Masks
Put on a white chef's jacket to impersonate this Italian chef from Modena. This year, Bottura's Osteria Francescana was ranked S. Pellegrino's the second-best restaurant in the world — and of course he has three Michlin stars — so you know he's high on our list. Go to your Halloween party with some spooky mummy meatballs to perfect this look.
With his multiple television shows and more than 20 cookbooks, Jamie Oliver makes a great subject for a Halloween impersonation. Polish your English accent, put on a flannel, and wear a television-star smile behind your mask to be a convincing Jamie.
Dress up as this famous food television host to celebrate your love for his shows, like Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America and Man Finds Food. Make up some of your own favorite sandwiches to enhance this costume. Dress in your best suit and tie to impersonate this celebrity.
To dress as this iconic food celebrity, the number-one entry in The Daily Meal Hall of Fame, don a curly wig, buttoned down blouse, and long apron. Serve up something from her famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, to impress all of your friends at your Halloween party.
This Food Network star, known for her show Barefoot Contessa, makes for an easy, quick costume this Halloween. Put on some pearl earrings and a scarf to complete Ina's look. Use your fun facts about Ina Garten to impress your friends this Halloween, and have them dress up as other Food Network stars to make this into a group costume! How easy Is that?
This television show host and chef is well-known for his decade-and-a-half as a Food Network star, which makes him a great choice for a Halloween costume. Sport a bomber jacket and carefully coiffed hair and jingle some car keys if your favorite show is The Great Food Truck Race. Throw a food truck-themed Halloween party, where all of your guests bring food inspired by their favorite mobile eateries.
Rick Bayless, known for his show, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, inspires great food to go with his visage. Bring quesadillas or nachos to your Halloween host to celebrate this celebrity's Mexican cooking. Be sure to dress in your white chef's jacket to let everyone know who you are.
While we love this chef's incredible food, his Halloween mask is positively creepy. This chef has restaurants from London to Bangkok, gaining more Michelin stars than any chef in the world. Sport a black chef's jacket and serve appetizers from around the world at your Halloween party inspired by this global celebrity chef.
This American-born Chinese celebrity chef currently hosts television shows Ming's Quest and Simply Ming. Be sure to pack your cooking knives with this outfit, so people know you're a serious chef, like Ming Tsai.
Wear a fashionable outfit and big hair to look just like the voluptuous Nigella Lawson. Hosting her own Food Network show, Nigella Feasts, as well as publishing multiple cookbooks have made this star an icon in the food world.
This chef, who won season eight of Food Network Star, is a hip, young guy perfect for dressing up as this Halloween. Complete the costume with a snap back hat and a fun t-shirt.
As the first female winner of Top Chef, Stephanie Izard is a role model for female chefs all over the world. Wear your chef costume with the title of the show printed across your apron to let everyone know you mean business.
This little celebrity makes us wonder if Ratatouille was based off this guy. With a clear love for pizza, this rat has quickly become a food celebrity, and would make for a great costume this year.
Combine this mask with a sophisticated suit and a faux bloody butcher knife and you'll have the best Chopped costume on the block. The former star of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy turned Food Network host extraordinaire may look demure and clean-cut in his network-approved coat and tie and black square glasses, but hollow out those eyes and you'll see a spooky side of Allen you had no idea existed.
Stepping out from the shadow of his older brother Ferran, Albert can now add another "honor" to his résumé: an official Daily Meal Halloween mask. His earlier talent for innovative pastries (hello, parmesan marshmallows) and his current trailblazing restaurateuring in Barcelona are what make the lines in his brooding brow furrow and turn him into a fabulous Halloween mask.
We feel that this mask truly captures the, er, soul of the actress, Goop creator, and sometime cookbook author. Don a blonde wig and consciously uncouple from your date and paint the town organic green.
The James Beard Award winner is rocketing right to the top of the food world and shows no signs of slowing down. The author of A Girl and Her Pig makes her debut on our Halloween mask list this year and we are pretty pleased with the results. Just tie your hair back tight and wear a white apron, spattered with "pig's blood" to pull off the look!
The Nordic chef makes for a fun Halloween mask. His scraggly scruff and his very Danish haircut need only be paired with a thick Scandinavian sweater for a cheeky costume.
Gail Simmons' award-winning smile turns into a Cheshire cat grin when you hollow out those dark brown eyes. If you're going to use the Gail Simmons mask, be sure to combine it with a fabulous dress and a sharp tongue to criticize all the dishes at your Halloween party.
Click here to see the 13 Freaky Food-Celebrity Masks (Slideshow)
See More Freaky Celebrity Halloween Masks.
Wolfgang Puck Zee Austrians are taking over, ja? Sorry, we had to. The surprisingly bubbly demeanor of this Austrian born entrepreneur chef is sort of disarming in and of itself. Pair that overzealous personality with blank eyes and a slight gap tooth and you'll be scaring all the neighborhood kids in no time.
Pete Wells
Nothing could be scarier to a chef than a brutal critic. Pete Wells of The New York Times is definitely someone to fear, and with his Jim Breuer-esque mug, we fear this may be too scary for the kids to even see.
One of the newly dubbed Iron Chefs to hit the scene full force, Michael Symon cooks with tons of creativity and passion. The bald, loveable biker-bro will turn into the creepiest cue ball with the help of this scary Halloween mask.
Nobu MatsuhisaThe mild-mannered Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa is famous for his amazing fusion food and signature dishes developed over several decades — not for the hollowed, zombie-eyed monster we turned him into. The mask itself may be only slightly scary, so be sure to accessorize your costume with some fitting, horrific extras like a bloody chef's outfit and chopsticks.
Geoffrey Zakarian Behind those thick-framed glasses and tasty dishes lurks the a soulless chef willing to chop unworthy peon chefs in his wake. OK, so it isn't that intense, but the Chopped judge would make a great play-on-words costume this year!
Curtis Stone The truth is, it is impossible to call Curtis Stone anything even close to scary. We just assumed that with his spiky blonde hair, chiseled jaw, and perfect eyes, every guy would want to be him for Halloween. Plus, we kind of just wanted an excuse to sit and stare at his face while editing the photo.
Alton Brown Bust out your best bow tie and get ready to get technical. Our Alton Brown mask is perfect for a mad scientist chef costume. Just think: This snazzy mask atop a lab coat/apron ensemble will make the most hilarious, slightly disturbing costume to date.
Alex Guarnaschelli Since her smile never goes above a smirk, we thought she would be the perfect food celebrity to haunt your Halloween. If you are trying to pull this off as a real costume, simply contain all of your excitement.
Giada De Laurentiis Don't get us wrong, Giada's a total babe and a whiz in the kitchen. However, that Cheshire cat grin paired with hollowed-out eyes gives us the total creeps!
Anne Burrell Although we are pretty sure that the mask speaks for itself, we don't mind explaining our final choice. OK, we don't have much to say. It's the hair — the wild, untamed mane that makes us all giggle profusely!
To see the rest of the 2013 Halloween Masks, check out our slideshow!
Download our 2012 List:
Unfortunately, even with zombie eyes, Zimmern is still a cutie patootie. The guy can't help but be cherubic, so you'll have to resort to other methods to get your spook on. This costume is all about instilling fear in others through fearless eating, so your best bet is to carry around an array of creepy crawlies to brandish and then devour in front of horrified strangers.
CARLA HALL The hair, that smile, and a constant devil's cry of "Hootie Hoo!" is your surefire recipe for a fright-filled night while wearing this mask. You could probably also just tell people that you're a host on The Chew to send them running for the hills.
JOSÉ ANDRÉS With your mouth askew and what appears to be a missing tooth, you might try to play up the "Hillbilly from Spain" angle by bringing Deliverance into the mix and yelling at people to "Squeal like an Ibérico pig!" This tactic will be especially surprising when you bust out an immersion circulator to keep the apple-bobbing liquid at an even temperature.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON Ethiopian-born, Swedish-bred Marcus Samuelsson already has an impishly mischievous face — that toothy smile and those vacuous eyes surely do nothing to help that. To really take it over the top, force people to let you endorse something; anything, really. It doesn't matter what it is, this mask will endorse it.
PAULA DEEN As someone who promotes unhealthy eating while taking money from a pharmaceutical company that sells diabetes medication, you're already downright horrifying. But the pairing of creepy eyeholes with that giant mouth of pearly whites gives this mask an air of Southern-inflected terror. "I'm going to feed you several sticks of butter, y'all."
TODD ENGLISH This mask makes English look like pure devil spawn. He appears as slick as an oil-covered gulf pelican, with a mouth nearly as wide. Pop this bad boy on and run around telling everyone about your next project. You'll have people running scared in no time.
BOBBY FLAY You know what's scary? A guy who goes around throwing down with unsuspecting mom-and-pop outfits and then puts them to shame on national TV. If you're looking to really scare the pants off people, try scraping a grill brush across your face while declaring yourself the king of Food Network.
Put on a disgruntled, hungover persona. Be gruff and pithy. For a true bad boy effect, cut a mouth hole and smoke. Prepare off-the-cuff monologues about how authentic/unbelievable/stupid some new/old/rediscovered food/culture/custom is. Be underwhelmed, but wrap things up with a witty, self-aware, semi-sensitive position on food and life.
TOM COLICCHIO What's scarier than TV's most outstanding soulpatch paired with a bald chrome and cutout zombie eyes? You can't walk around telling people to, "Please pack your knives," because Top Chef co-host Tom Colicchio refuses to say that tagline. But you can certainly intimidate contestants from previous seasons and the upcoming Top Chef crew if you bump into any of them on Halloween.
This makes the perfect Halloween mask if you think about it: instant recognition of the spiked white(ish) hair, piercings, fire-decal clothes, and complicated matching (dyed?) facial hair. The beloved host of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and NBC's Minute to Win It always just seems like a genuine dude having the best time in the world (though according to a recent Citypages.com article, that image may be more culivated and less friendly than most people think). Either way, his is another fun personality to emulate, and his trademark enthusiasm and energy are sure to garner attention.
MARIO BATALI By all accounts, this chef-restaurateur and TV celebrity just seems like a guy you'd like to party with. Even cutout zombie eyes don't do much to make him look scary. But he has been in a horror movie (Bitter Feast) and you can envision him as intimidating in the kitchen or as a businessman. With his mask you get instant recognition, and if you don his trademark orange Crocs, you'll be wearing Halloween colors. "Buon Appett-ee-TO!"
The editorial advisor to Gilt Taste has a scary résumé that includes Gourmet and before that famously dressing up in different costumes and wigs to maintain her anonymity as restaurant critic for The New York Times. But don't be fooled! It's not her curriculum vitae that you need fear, nor the mask's leering vacant eyes and teeth-clenched smile. It's the Reichl tweets! They've spawned a James Beard Award-winning parody, and Reichl herself has even gotten a new book deal out of gems like: "Cold sake-steamed chicken, straight from the refrigerator. Pearly flesh smooth as satin. Cats twine hopefully around my ankles. Think not." As Eater has noted, they're daily reminders that Reichl's life is better than yours.
SANDRA LEE Cher, Madonna, Cleopatra, Monroe, Hepburn, Streisand — it seems only right, given all the times Aunt Sandy has dressed up in these costumes over the years to celebrate the holiday, that the Food Network's queen of Halloween should get her own mask. And Anthony Bourdain is on the record as calling her the "hellspawn of Betty Crocker and Charles Manson." Like Sandy, you should have a few cocktails (cue video to 1:26), get a friend to wear the Bourdain mask, and recreate the scary face-to-face meeting between the two that he described in his book Medium Raw.
Download our 2011 List
RACHAEL RAY The frozen, bone-white smile and the catchphrases ("EVOO," "sammys," "delish," and of course, "Yum-O") should be enough to scare anyone in broad daylight, no less on a dark night, but the effect will have an even greater impact if you do your best gravelly voiced impression of the Food Network star turned daytime talk show host .
ANTHONY BOURDAIN Put on a disgruntled, hungover persona. Be gruff and pithy. For a true bad boy effect, cut a mouth hole and smoke. Prepare off-the-cuff monologues about how authentic/unbelievable/stupid some new/old/rediscovered food/culture/custom is. Be underwhelmed, but wrap things up with a witty, self-aware, semi-sensitive position on food and life. You'll be a scary facsimile of the host of Travel Channel's No Reservations.
TOM COLICCHIO What's scarier than TV's most outstanding soulpatch paired with a bald chrome and cutout zombie eyes? You can't walk around telling people to, "Please pack your knives," because Top Chef co-host Tom Colicchio refuses to say that tagline. But you can certainly intimidate contestants from previous seasons and the upcoming Top Chef Texas crew if you bump into any of them on Halloween.
As famous as these other food celebs are, Emeril has many beat. He had his own situation comedy (very briefly) and he's done toothpaste commercials. How to get your Emeril on? Your best move when it comes to intimidating while wearing this mask: walk around chanting, over and over, "Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"
FERRAN ADRIÀ He's a chef whose career has been frighteningly successful, but Adrià's visage probably isn't likely to scare the average American. This mask will probably be most effective for frightening the hell out of aspiring chefs when they're at work in the kitchen. The last thing they'll expect while trying to get out of the weeds is for their culinary hero to walk through the door. But if you're the kind of person who is going to walk into a restaurant kitchen uninvited you might be scary enough not to need a mask.
GORDON RAMSAY The alleged hairplugs, the intimidating growl, the tough, weathered face — this one's too easy. Put on your best Scotttish accent and just start yelling at people. Don't stint on the obscenities. Bark orders. Stare at people as if they have committed crimes against culinary nature the likes of which you cannot believe. Growl. Try to get your victims to crack, as Ramsay has done on his popular reality TV cooking competitions. It's a persona that might be fun to try on for a night. And you won't have to face the scary number of lawsuits Ramsay has had to over the years.
GUY FIERI This makes the perfect Halloween mask if you think about it: instant recognition of the spiked white(ish) hair, piercings, fire-decal clothes, and complicated matching (dyed?) facial hair. The beloved host of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and NBC's Minute to Win It always just seems like a genuine dude having the best time in the world (though according to a recent Citypages.com article, that image may be more culivated and less friendly than most people think). Either way, his is another fun personality to emulate, and his trademark enthusiasm and energy are sure to garner attention.
MARIO BATALI By all accounts, this chef-restaurateur and TV celebrity just seems like a guy you'd like to party with. Even cutout zombie eyes don't do much to make his cherubic face scary. But he has been in a horror movie (Bitter Feast) and you can envision him as intimidating in the kitchen or as a businessman. With his mask you get instant recognition, and if you don his trademark Crocs, you'll be wearing Halloween colors. "Buon Appett-ee-TO!"
RUTH REICHL The editorial advisor to Gilt Taste has a scary résumé that includes Gourmet and before that famously dressing up in different costumes and wigs to maintain her anonymity as restaurant critic for The New York Times. But don't be fooled! It's not her curriculum vitae that you need fear, nor the mask's leering vacant eyes and teeth-clenched smile. It's the Reichl tweets! They've spawned a James Beard Award-winning parody (see below), and Reichl herself has even gotten a new book deal out of gems like: "Cold sake-steamed chicken, straight from the refrigerator. Pearly flesh smooth as satin. Cats twine hopefully around my ankles. Think not." As Eater has noted, they're daily reminders that Reichl's life is better than yours.
PADMA LAKSHMI The model turned wife of fatwa'd novelist Salman Rushdie turned Top Chef co-host has the honor of saying on the show the most dreaded words that any aspiring cheftestant could hear: "Please pack your knives." But be careful wearing this mask out in public, where she may not have the same intimidating effect. As Gothamist reported recently, at a food-themed reading at The Moth, "one front-row audience member found Lakshmi 'so grating' as a host that he stood up in the middle of her story and vowed to give The Moth $1,000 if she would just shut up already and get offstage...which she did."
MARTHA STEWART She's one of the most powerful people in food, she's spent time in the clink, and if you believe what Alexis Stewart is reported to have written in her new book, even Martha's daughter is kind of scared of her: "Martha does everything better! You can't win! If I didn't do something perfectly, I had to do it again... I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head." Don't fall for the smile! It's food celebrity EV-IL!
SANDRA LEE Cher, Madonna, Cleopatra, Monroe, Hepburn, Streisand — it seems only right that given all the times Aunt Sandy has dressed up in these costumes over the years to celebrate the holiday, that the Food Network's queen of Halloween should get her own mask. And Anthony Bourdain is on the record as calling her the "hellspawn of Betty Crocker and Charles Manson." Like Sandy, you should have a few cocktails (cue video to 1:26), get a friend to wear the Bourdain mask, and recreate the scary face-to-face meeting between the two that he described in his book Medium Raw.
RUTH BOURDAIN There's a reason the parody works. This fictional mashup inspired by Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain's Twitter styles is a scary pairing of food personalities. You could, if you really want to show you're in the know though, just wear a Robert Sietsma mask, as rumor has it, the Village Voice's resident food critic is the real person behind the joke.
Happy Halloween!
Photos courtesy of (in order of appearance) Flickr/John Edwards 2008, Wikimedia Commons/Adriankwok, Craft Restaurant, Macy's, Gerry Dawes, Wikimedia Commons/Allan Warren, The Brooks Group, Gerry Dawes, Ruth Reichl, Wikimedia Commons/Tabercil, Wikimedia Commons/David Shankbone
Combine this mask with a sophisticated suit and a faux bloody butcher knife and you'll have the best Chopped costume on the block. The former star of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy turned Food Network host extraordinaire may look demure and clean-cut in his network-approved coat and tie and black square glasses, but hollow out those eyes and you'll see a spooky side of Allen you had no idea existed.
Stepping out from the shadow of his older brother Ferran, Albert can now add another "honor" to his résumé: an official Daily Meal Halloween mask. His earlier talent for innovative pastries (hello, parmesan marshmallows) and his current trailblazing restaurateuring in Barcelona are what make the lines in his brooding brow furrow and turn him into a fabulous Halloween mask.
We feel that this mask truly captures the, er, soul of the actress, Goop creator, and sometime cookbook author. Don a blonde wig and consciously uncouple from your date and paint the town organic green.
The James Beard Award winner is rocketing right to the top of the food world and shows no signs of slowing down. The author of A Girl and Her Pig makes her debut on our Halloween mask list this year and we are pretty pleased with the results. Just tie your hair back tight and wear a white apron, spattered with "pig's blood" to pull off the look!
The Nordic chef makes for a fun Halloween mask. His scraggly scruff and his very Danish haircut need only be paired with a thick Scandinavian sweater for a cheeky costume.
Gail Simmons' award-winning smile turns into a Cheshire cat grin when you hollow out those dark brown eyes. If you're going to use the Gail Simmons mask, be sure to combine it with a fabulous dress and a sharp tongue to criticize all the dishes at your Halloween party.
Click here for the Freaky Food Celebrity Masks Slideshow
Wolfgang Puck Zee Austrians are taking over, ja? Sorry, we had to. The surprisingly bubbly demeanor of this Austrian born entrepreneur chef is sort of disarming in and of itself. Pair that overzealous personality with blank eyes and a slight gap tooth and you'll be scaring all the neighborhood kids in no time.
Pete Wells
Nothing could be scarier to a chef than a brutal critic. Pete Wells of The New York Times is definitely someone to fear, and with his Jim Breuer-esque mug, we fear this may be too scary for the kids to even see.
One of the newly dubbed Iron Chefs to hit the scene full force, Michael Symon cooks with tons of creativity and passion. The bald, loveable biker-bro will turn into the creepiest cue ball with the help of this scary Halloween mask.
Nobu MatsuhisaThe mild-mannered Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa is famous for his amazing fusion food and signature dishes developed over several decades — not for the hollowed, zombie-eyed monster we turned him into. The mask itself may be only slightly scary, so be sure to accessorize your costume with some fitting, horrific extras like a bloody chef's outfit and chopsticks.
Geoffrey Zakarian Behind those thick-framed glasses and tasty dishes lurks the a soulless chef willing to chop unworthy peon chefs in his wake. OK, so it isn't that intense, but the Chopped judge would make a great play-on-words costume this year!
Curtis Stone The truth is, it is impossible to call Curtis Stone anything even close to scary. We just assumed that with his spiky blonde hair, chiseled jaw, and perfect eyes, every guy would want to be him for Halloween. Plus, we kind of just wanted an excuse to sit and stare at his face while editing the photo.
Alton Brown Bust out your best bow tie and get ready to get technical. Our Alton Brown mask is perfect for a mad scientist chef costume. Just think: This snazzy mask atop a lab coat/apron ensemble will make the most hilarious, slightly disturbing costume to date.
Alex Guarnaschelli Since her smile never goes above a smirk, we thought she would be the perfect food celebrity to haunt your Halloween. If you are trying to pull this off as a real costume, simply contain all of your excitement.
Giada De Laurentiis Don't get us wrong, Giada's a total babe and a whiz in the kitchen. However, that Cheshire cat grin paired with hollowed-out eyes gives us the total creeps!
Anne Burrell Although we are pretty sure that the mask speaks for itself, we don't mind explaining our final choice. OK, we don't have much to say. It's the hair — the wild, untamed mane that makes us all giggle profusely!
To see the rest of the 2013 Halloween Masks, check out our slideshow!
Download our 2012 List:
Unfortunately, even with zombie eyes, Zimmern is still a cutie patootie. The guy can't help but be cherubic, so you'll have to resort to other methods to get your spook on. This costume is all about instilling fear in others through fearless eating, so your best bet is to carry around an array of creepy crawlies to brandish and then devour in front of horrified strangers.
CARLA HALL The hair, that smile, and a constant devil's cry of "Hootie Hoo!" is your surefire recipe for a fright-filled night while wearing this mask. You could probably also just tell people that you're a host on The Chew to send them running for the hills.
JOSÉ ANDRÉS With your mouth askew and what appears to be a missing tooth, you might try to play up the "Hillbilly from Spain" angle by bringing Deliverance into the mix and yelling at people to "Squeal like an Ibérico pig!" This tactic will be especially surprising when you bust out an immersion circulator to keep the apple-bobbing liquid at an even temperature.
MARCUS SAMUELSSON Ethiopian-born, Swedish-bred Marcus Samuelsson already has an impishly mischievous face — that toothy smile and those vacuous eyes surely do nothing to help that. To really take it over the top, force people to let you endorse something; anything, really. It doesn't matter what it is, this mask will endorse it.
PAULA DEEN As someone who promotes unhealthy eating while taking money from a pharmaceutical company that sells diabetes medication, you're already downright horrifying. But the pairing of creepy eyeholes with that giant mouth of pearly whites gives this mask an air of Southern-inflected terror. "I'm going to feed you several sticks of butter, y'all."
TODD ENGLISH This mask makes English look like pure devil spawn. He appears as slick as an oil-covered gulf pelican, with a mouth nearly as wide. Pop this bad boy on and run around telling everyone about your next project. You'll have people running scared in no time.
BOBBY FLAY You know what's scary? A guy who goes around throwing down with unsuspecting mom-and-pop outfits and then puts them to shame on national TV. If you're looking to really scare the pants off people, try scraping a grill brush across your face while declaring yourself the king of Food Network.
Put on a disgruntled, hungover persona. Be gruff and pithy. For a true bad boy effect, cut a mouth hole and smoke. Prepare off-the-cuff monologues about how authentic/unbelievable/stupid some new/old/rediscovered food/culture/custom is. Be underwhelmed, but wrap things up with a witty, self-aware, semi-sensitive position on food and life.
TOM COLICCHIO What's scarier than TV's most outstanding soulpatch paired with a bald chrome and cutout zombie eyes? You can't walk around telling people to, "Please pack your knives," because Top Chef co-host Tom Colicchio refuses to say that tagline. But you can certainly intimidate contestants from previous seasons and the upcoming Top Chef crew if you bump into any of them on Halloween.
This makes the perfect Halloween mask if you think about it: instant recognition of the spiked white(ish) hair, piercings, fire-decal clothes, and complicated matching (dyed?) facial hair. The beloved host of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and NBC's Minute to Win It always just seems like a genuine dude having the best time in the world (though according to a recent Citypages.com article, that image may be more culivated and less friendly than most people think). Either way, his is another fun personality to emulate, and his trademark enthusiasm and energy are sure to garner attention.
MARIO BATALI By all accounts, this chef-restaurateur and TV celebrity just seems like a guy you'd like to party with. Even cutout zombie eyes don't do much to make him look scary. But he has been in a horror movie (Bitter Feast) and you can envision him as intimidating in the kitchen or as a businessman. With his mask you get instant recognition, and if you don his trademark orange Crocs, you'll be wearing Halloween colors. "Buon Appett-ee-TO!"
The editorial advisor to Gilt Taste has a scary résumé that includes Gourmet and before that famously dressing up in different costumes and wigs to maintain her anonymity as restaurant critic for The New York Times. But don't be fooled! It's not her curriculum vitae that you need fear, nor the mask's leering vacant eyes and teeth-clenched smile. It's the Reichl tweets! They've spawned a James Beard Award-winning parody, and Reichl herself has even gotten a new book deal out of gems like: "Cold sake-steamed chicken, straight from the refrigerator. Pearly flesh smooth as satin. Cats twine hopefully around my ankles. Think not." As Eater has noted, they're daily reminders that Reichl's life is better than yours.
SANDRA LEE Cher, Madonna, Cleopatra, Monroe, Hepburn, Streisand — it seems only right, given all the times Aunt Sandy has dressed up in these costumes over the years to celebrate the holiday, that the Food Network's queen of Halloween should get her own mask. And Anthony Bourdain is on the record as calling her the "hellspawn of Betty Crocker and Charles Manson." Like Sandy, you should have a few cocktails (cue video to 1:26), get a friend to wear the Bourdain mask, and recreate the scary face-to-face meeting between the two that he described in his book Medium Raw.
Download our 2011 List
RACHAEL RAY The frozen, bone-white smile and the catchphrases ("EVOO," "sammys," "delish," and of course, "Yum-O") should be enough to scare anyone in broad daylight, no less on a dark night, but the effect will have an even greater impact if you do your best gravelly voiced impression of the Food Network star turned daytime talk show host .
ANTHONY BOURDAIN Put on a disgruntled, hungover persona. Be gruff and pithy. For a true bad boy effect, cut a mouth hole and smoke. Prepare off-the-cuff monologues about how authentic/unbelievable/stupid some new/old/rediscovered food/culture/custom is. Be underwhelmed, but wrap things up with a witty, self-aware, semi-sensitive position on food and life. You'll be a scary facsimile of the host of Travel Channel's No Reservations.
TOM COLICCHIO What's scarier than TV's most outstanding soulpatch paired with a bald chrome and cutout zombie eyes? You can't walk around telling people to, "Please pack your knives," because Top Chef co-host Tom Colicchio refuses to say that tagline. But you can certainly intimidate contestants from previous seasons and the upcoming Top Chef Texas crew if you bump into any of them on Halloween.
As famous as these other food celebs are, Emeril has many beat. He had his own situation comedy (very briefly) and he's done toothpaste commercials. How to get your Emeril on? Your best move when it comes to intimidating while wearing this mask: walk around chanting, over and over, "Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"
FERRAN ADRIÀ He's a chef whose career has been frighteningly successful, but Adrià's visage probably isn't likely to scare the average American. This mask will probably be most effective for frightening the hell out of aspiring chefs when they're at work in the kitchen. The last thing they'll expect while trying to get out of the weeds is for their culinary hero to walk through the door. But if you're the kind of person who is going to walk into a restaurant kitchen uninvited you might be scary enough not to need a mask.
GORDON RAMSAY The alleged hairplugs, the intimidating growl, the tough, weathered face — this one's too easy. Put on your best Scotttish accent and just start yelling at people. Don't stint on the obscenities. Bark orders. Stare at people as if they have committed crimes against culinary nature the likes of which you cannot believe. Growl. Try to get your victims to crack, as Ramsay has done on his popular reality TV cooking competitions. It's a persona that might be fun to try on for a night. And you won't have to face the scary number of lawsuits Ramsay has had to over the years.
GUY FIERI This makes the perfect Halloween mask if you think about it: instant recognition of the spiked white(ish) hair, piercings, fire-decal clothes, and complicated matching (dyed?) facial hair. The beloved host of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and NBC's Minute to Win It always just seems like a genuine dude having the best time in the world (though according to a recent Citypages.com article, that image may be more culivated and less friendly than most people think). Either way, his is another fun personality to emulate, and his trademark enthusiasm and energy are sure to garner attention.
MARIO BATALI By all accounts, this chef-restaurateur and TV celebrity just seems like a guy you'd like to party with. Even cutout zombie eyes don't do much to make his cherubic face scary. But he has been in a horror movie (Bitter Feast) and you can envision him as intimidating in the kitchen or as a businessman. With his mask you get instant recognition, and if you don his trademark Crocs, you'll be wearing Halloween colors. "Buon Appett-ee-TO!"
RUTH REICHL The editorial advisor to Gilt Taste has a scary résumé that includes Gourmet and before that famously dressing up in different costumes and wigs to maintain her anonymity as restaurant critic for The New York Times. But don't be fooled! It's not her curriculum vitae that you need fear, nor the mask's leering vacant eyes and teeth-clenched smile. It's the Reichl tweets! They've spawned a James Beard Award-winning parody (see below), and Reichl herself has even gotten a new book deal out of gems like: "Cold sake-steamed chicken, straight from the refrigerator. Pearly flesh smooth as satin. Cats twine hopefully around my ankles. Think not." As Eater has noted, they're daily reminders that Reichl's life is better than yours.
PADMA LAKSHMI The model turned wife of fatwa'd novelist Salman Rushdie turned Top Chef co-host has the honor of saying on the show the most dreaded words that any aspiring cheftestant could hear: "Please pack your knives." But be careful wearing this mask out in public, where she may not have the same intimidating effect. As Gothamist reported recently, at a food-themed reading at The Moth, "one front-row audience member found Lakshmi 'so grating' as a host that he stood up in the middle of her story and vowed to give The Moth $1,000 if she would just shut up already and get offstage...which she did."
MARTHA STEWART She's one of the most powerful people in food, she's spent time in the clink, and if you believe what Alexis Stewart is reported to have written in her new book, even Martha's daughter is kind of scared of her: "Martha does everything better! You can't win! If I didn't do something perfectly, I had to do it again... I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head." Don't fall for the smile! It's food celebrity EV-IL!
SANDRA LEE Cher, Madonna, Cleopatra, Monroe, Hepburn, Streisand — it seems only right that given all the times Aunt Sandy has dressed up in these costumes over the years to celebrate the holiday, that the Food Network's queen of Halloween should get her own mask. And Anthony Bourdain is on the record as calling her the "hellspawn of Betty Crocker and Charles Manson." Like Sandy, you should have a few cocktails (cue video to 1:26), get a friend to wear the Bourdain mask, and recreate the scary face-to-face meeting between the two that he described in his book Medium Raw.
RUTH BOURDAIN There's a reason the parody works. This fictional mashup inspired by Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain's Twitter styles is a scary pairing of food personalities. You could, if you really want to show you're in the know though, just wear a Robert Sietsma mask, as rumor has it, the Village Voice's resident food critic is the real person behind the joke.
Happy Halloween!
Photos courtesy of (in order of appearance) Flickr/John Edwards 2008, Wikimedia Commons/Adriankwok, Craft Restaurant, Macy's, Gerry Dawes, Wikimedia Commons/Allan Warren, The Brooks Group, Gerry Dawes, Ruth Reichl, Wikimedia Commons/Tabercil, Wikimedia Commons/David Shankbone