Chef Tom Colicchio is best known as one of the judges on the Bravo reality series Top Chef, in which contestants face various challenges to their gourmet cooking prowess. The co-owner, founder, and former executive chef of the Gramercy Tavern in New York, Colicchio has received the James Beard Foundation Medal for his cooking on multiple occasions and has opened many other restaurants including Craft, Craftbar, and Craftsteak. He made a cameo as himself in the big-screen adaptation of The Smurfs.
Tom Colicchio
Share on
Biography by AllMovie
Movie Highlights
Factsheet
- Learned about food as a youth by cooking with his mother and grandmother.
- Taught himself the culinary craft by studying cooking manuals authored by celebrity chef Jacques Pepin.
- Made cooking debut at age 17 at Evelyn's Seafood Restaurant in his hometown of Elizabeth, NJ.
- Opened Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan in 1994 and won the James Beard Award for Best Chef, New York, in 2000.
- Penned the cookbooks Think Like a Chef and Craft of Cooking.
- Successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on cookbook scribe Joan Nathan, who was choking on a piece of chicken at a charity function in January 2009.