To those who are not a fan of cooking, spending hours theorizing and mixing various ingredients to fashion a new recipe might seem like a waste of time, but for someone like Michael Symon, who is passionate about the art of cooking, it is actually a path of financial success. Through his career as a chef and TV host, Michael Symon’s net worth over the course of his career in the food industry has seen significant growth.
Known to be more than a chef, Symon has become one of the most recognizable faces on television, particularly to fans of cooking shows and as a result, he has become a rich and successful person. But just how rich is the popular chef? Find out below, as well as how he makes his money.
Michael Symon’s Net Worth
Those days when your mother encouraged you to stay in the kitchen with her while she cooked may have turned out to be a waste of your time, but it hasn’t been the case with Michael Symon. The renowned chef now has a net worth of $4 million, earned through his career as a skilled chef.
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, Michael Symon has amassed his net worth primarily through the food industry, via various means, and in the section below, we dig deeper into how each means fetched him his fortune.
How Does Michael Symon Make Money From Food Reality Shows?
For a man who grew up in a modest family, his net worth of $4 million is a dream come true and it all began in Cleveland, Ohio, where Michael Symon was born and raised. He began working as a chef in the Cleveland restaurant circuit after graduating from culinary school. He worked at restaurants like Player’s, Piccolo Mondo and Caxton Café, gaining a following for his style at Piccolo Mondo.
As his name grew in Cleveland, Michael Symon, in partnership with the woman who later became his wife, Liz Shanahan, ventured into the restaurant business, opening his outlet, Lola, in February 1997. The restaurant became a success, fetching excellent reviews from Gourmet magazine, who proclaimed his first restaurant one of the best in America.
Following the success of his first restaurant venture, he has opened several others, like Parea, Roast, Bar Symon, BSpot, Angeline, and a few others, all of which have been successful enough to be immeasurable contributors to Michael Symon’s net worth.
However, while he has found great success as a restauranteur, his popularity and the other major contributor to Michael’s $4 million net worth is his career as a TV personality, which includes appearances in reality shows.
The Cleveland-born chef made his debut appearance on TV in the documentary, And Then We Ate… in 1998, following it up with two-episode appearances on the show, Melting Pot in 2002. While he has made appearances across various TV programs, the bulk of his earnings have come through longrunning appearances on reality shows, and he began to appear in them in 2005 when he was seen on Iron Chef America: The Series.
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Since appearing on Iron Chef America: The Series, he has appeared in several other reality shows like Food Feuds, Cook Like an Iron Chef, Dinner: Impossible, Symon’s Suppers, The Chew, Burgers, Bew and ‘Que, all of which he appeared as a host.
Other appearances include Iron Chef Eats, The View, The Dr. Oz Show, All-Star Academy, Southern Fried Everything, and the drama, Nashville, where he played himself.
His exact earnings from every show are unknown, but with an average yearly salary of more than $300,000 for hosting gigs on cooking shows, Michael Symon is estimated to have earned more than $1 million from his shows, having hosted more than five of them, which has contributed immensely to his net worth.
Other than his restaurants and cooking shows, Michael Symon’s net worth has also come via his books. The chef has written more than five cookbooks like Michael Symon’s Live to Cook: Recipes and Techniques to Rock Your Kitchen, which is his first, along with others like Michael Symon’s Carnivore: 120 Recipes for Meat Lovers, Michael Symon’s Playing with Fire and a couple more.
His net worth has also come through other entrepreneurial ventures like partnering with companies like Weston Products, Vitamix and Calphalon, to create and promote his line of kitchenware and cookware.
