Creativity and imagination
 

I think that creativity makes a great chef - being able to use all the knowledge they get in cooking schools and turn it into something magical with the help of their imagination.

I think a lot of it is also just knowing your audience. Would Paula Deen be as successful if she opened the same restaurant in San Francisco? Maybe, but I doubt it. I'm not sure if she is a Chef or just a cook, but she is one of my favorites.

Most Artist think they are the best, and in theri own circle they are...

Money is just about keeping score, at the end of the day we all work to make a profit, that is what keeps us going...

No profit, no door to open...no gas for oven...

Ancient Chinese cook fact...

Ability to create great taste & presentation

I have a plus-sized friend and chef who once told me "Never trust a skinny chef" and that motto has served me quite well so far :D

And thank goodness!

Having a tv show.

It greatly depends on what you mean by chef. I've been forced to go to one of Emerill's restaurants. I'm pretty sure he wasn't in the kitchen. I didn't hear any stupid bams. Plenty of the big chefs have more than one restaurant and they really are more business managers than chefs.

It's rather impossible to answer your question without more definition around what you mean by great chef. Best chef on the line? Best business manager? Best menu maker?

Being a great chef is a lot about management. You have to be a great cook, great leader, great manager all at the same time. When chefs go to the top of their professional success, a lot of them rarely work the line. They mainly become overseers, but with a firm hand on the menu.

Not a bad list of qualities, but I would add...

A commitment to maximizing the dining pleasure and feeling of perceived value of the patrons (well, at least the relatively discerning diners among them).