Why Chefs are Moonlighting as Fashion Models

April 30, 2018 1:38 p.m. ET

In 2010, the year that Mr. Rapoport decamped from GQ to Bon Appetit, the food industry was undergoing a facelift. Burgeoning eateries like Momofuku Ssäm Bar in New York City, Husk in Charleston, S.C., and Rolf & Daughters in Nashville, Tenn., peddled homey dishes to millennial customers, offering an alternative to posh restaurants with a less-stifling scene (Outkast on the soundtrack, recycled wood tables, hop-bomb craft beers on the menu) and slightly friendlier prices. That same year, the launch of Instagram let any casual eater pass himself off as a food blogger. “Food was becoming cultural,” said Mr. Rapoport, in a way that extended beyond the subculture of “foodies.” In the past few years, this effect has snowballed: “People put as much stock into going to the new ramen joint or the new Korean BBQ place as they do in seeing this band or going to this new club.”

Restaurants today permeate our culture, including the fashion world, where chefs have become unlikely style icons. “Everything is more spotlighted because of Instagram and the internet,” said Jon Shook, one half of Jon & Vinny, a Los Angeles-based restaurateur duo that runs Animal, Son of a Gun and Jon & Vinny’s. Restaurant blogs, the Food Network and magazines like Bon Appetit have birthed the concept of the chef as celebrity. What’s more, the look of the modern chef—workwear pieces like faded jeans and hardy pocket-heavy coats ideal for the farmer’s market—aligns perfectly with the casual, utilitarian moment that fashion finds itself in.

“I don’t know anything about fashion. I know about personal style,” said Marcus Samuelsson, the head chef of Red Rooster in Harlem, New York. His lack of fashion bona fides didn’t dissuade Italian Vogue from featuring Mr. Samuelsson in a four-photo spread in 2012.

Such prominent placement has spurred some chefs to care, perhaps too much, about their clothes. Thomas Carter—the restaurateur behind the trendy New York spots Estela, Café Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar—said he’s seen chefs either hire a stylist or otherwise dramatically evolve their style once they’ve achieved celebrity. Though Mr. Carter and his partner, the chef Ignacio Mattos, default to fairly subdued looks (think neat, navy suits and jeans, respectively), the celebrification of cooking has opened up new fashion-world opportunities for them. In 2015, the duo appeared in chic sweaters for a Club Monaco photoshoot, adding their names to a growing roster of chefs that have moonlit as models.

Currently, Massimo Bottura, of three-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, appears in a campaign for Gucci. Meanwhile, Uniqlo ads have featured chefs like Momofuku’s David Chang and Danny Bowien, the owner of Mission Chinese Food, a Sichuan-fusion restaurant with locations in Manhattan and San Francisco. Yet more evidence: Angela Dimayuga, a former executive chef of Mission Chinese, recently appeared alongside Spike Jonze and the actor Lakeith Stanfield in a campaign for Opening Ceremony, the downtown New York label.

“In the food industry, for so long, it was never encouraged to be an individual,” said Mr. Bowien. “You were always just a line cook in a restaurant. It was always encouraged to blend in.” He was able to break out of that when he opened Mission Chinese Food, he added: “It freed me up to wear clothing that I was comfortable with.” Arriving in New York in 2012, Mr. Bowien received acclaim for his madcap menu—and for his equally audacious fashion sense. GQ captured Mr. Bowien’s style in a 2017 spread that showed the svelte 36-year-old in patchworked cropped jeans and a baggy red T-shirt by the rebellious Zurich-based brand Vetements. With green hair to boot, Mr. Bowien had put a lot of distance between himself and his whites-and-toque-wearing predecessors. He was, to use a buzzy phrase, “his authentic self,” a draw for the fashion world, where “real people” in lieu of models are in vogue.

Fashion’s food obsession is going further than turning chefs into models, however, as designer labels partner with kitchen tsars to create products and directly bolster sales. Nike recently collaborated with Momofuku on a pair of sneakers that immediately sold out; New York chef Eddie Huang has become the brand ambassador for underwear startup MeUndies; and Madewell joined forces with chef Christina Tosi, of Milk Bar fame, to produce a frothy collection that included an apron and a bandana. Some restaurants, like Mission Chinese Food and Rolf & Daughters, have even cut out the industry middleman to release their own T-shirts and trendy “dad hats”, respectively.

“[Brands] know they can reach more people with food,” said Mr. Shook. He and his partner Vinny Dotolo tag-teamed with Vans this past year on a series of co-branded skate-cum-kitchen shoes. Said Mr. Shook, “Everybody is looking for a way to connect with people and food is a great way to do that.”