13. Gordon Ramsay – $4 million salary
Notorious British chef Gordon Ramsay, has many restaurants to his name, but it’s also his US reality TV career that boosts his earnings dramatically. His restaurants have a total of 16 Michelin stars, and he’s also one of the richest reality TV stars in the world.
FOX first took notice of Ramsay and his short temper and commissioned a US version of Hell’s Kitchen. He then moved onto Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, where he would turn around a failing restaurants for owners who had no idea what they were doing. In 2010, Ramsay became a judge on the US MasterChef, and has continued to be the face of many hit US cookery shows.
Ramsay has fielded two lawsuits against disgruntled restaurant owners and chefs he has worked with on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, both insisting that the show was fake and set up. He won the first and the second was dismissed.
