Thomas Patrick Colicchio (/koʊˈliːkjoʊ/; born August 15, 1962) is an American celebrity chef. He co-founded the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, and formerly served as a co-owner and as the executive chef. He is also the founder of Crafted Hospitality, which includes Craft (NYC and Los Angeles), Temple Court (NYC), Craftsteak (MGM Grand Las Vegas) and Small Batch (Long Island) restaurants. Colicchio is the recipient of five James Beard Foundation Awards for cooking accomplishments.
Colicchio was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the middle son of Beverly Ann (née Corvelli) and Thomas Patrick Colicchio.[3][4] He has an older brother Michael and a younger brother Philip John. His mother worked in a school lunchroom.[5] His father was a union organizer.[6] He is of Italian descent on both sides.[7] He graduated in 1980 from Elizabeth High School.[8]
Career
In the mid-1980s, Colicchio served as a sous-chef to Thomas Keller at Rakel in Manhattan.[9][10]
In July 1994, Colicchio and his partner Danny Meyer opened the Gramercy Tavern in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan. It was voted Most Popular Restaurant in New York City by the Zagat Survey in 2003 and 2005. He sold his interest in 2006 and is no longer affiliated with the restaurant.[11]
In spring 2001, he opened the first Craft restaurant one block south of Gramercy Tavern. A year later, he opened the first Craftsteak at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After the September 11 attacks, Colicchio served food to rescue workers at Ground Zero.[12] In 2003, he began the first 'wichcraft, his sandwich shop.
In 2010, he opened Colicchio & Sons, and also Riverpark. Colicchio won the 2010 Outstanding Chef award from the James Beard Foundation.[13]
Colicchio serves on the Food Council at City Harvest and the Culinary Council at Food Bank for New York City, two hunger-relief organizations.[15][16] Colicchio has long been involved in food supply chain, restaurant and hunger relief issues.[17]
Colicchio has been involved with Top Chef since its beginning in 2006, where he has served as head judge.
He is also the main consulting producer on Bravo's Top Chef spin-off series entitled Top Chef Masters.[18] He also won an Emmy Award in 2010 for Outstanding Reality-Competition Programming as an executive producer of Top Chef, on which he appears.[19]
In June 2020, Colicchio launched his podcast, "Citizen Chef" via the iHeartRadio Podcast Network. The seasonal series deals with issues of food, politics, policy and citizenship.[22]
He has been married to filmmaker Lori Silverbush since 2001.[12]
He has three sons: Dante (born 1993), his child with an ex-girlfriend,[41] and his two children with Silverbush, Luka Bodhi (born 2009)[42] and Mateo Lev (born 2011).[43]
