Celebrity chefs and lifestyle gurus like Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray have created vast empires of branded products that include cookware and food products sold at various retailers ranging from K-Mart to Williams-Sonoma. More recently, this concept has expanded to include entire stores dedicated to a single chef's curated product selection. This allows these celebrities to become a presence not only on your television screens and bookshelves, but also in your pantry.

Eater recently launched a new series that investigates the rise of celebrity chef branded stores, starting with Giada De Laurentiis' online-only shop Giadzy. As Amy McCarthy explains, "with beautifully decorated, picture-perfect containers of bluefin tuna and organically grown tomatoes, Giadzy is selling cosmopolitan chic more than it is selling mere groceries." It's an aspirational store, offering $57 USD jars of tuna and $108 bottles of balsamic vinegar.

This seems to be a theme among celebrity chefs that offer their own signature brands: encouraging fans to indulge in a taste of luxury without having to venture any farther than their living room sofa as long as they have an internet connection and a credit card. Does a $57 jar of tuna taste ten times better than a $6 can of the "good stuff" from the supermarket? Maybe not, but there might be enough difference for someone who adores Giada to make it a worthwhile splurge. And it's cheaper than a trip to Italy.