If there's one thing Reuters has learned from a year of asking celebrities about their first gigs ever, it is that you never forget your first job. No matter how famous or powerful they have become, America's foremost achievers all remember that very first moment of bringing home a paycheck.

This month, to coincide with the monthly jobs report, we talked to the celebrity chefs who have taken over our airwaves. Before they started creating gourmet meals, they began at the bottom just like the rest of us.