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]
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.[10] 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. In 2003, he began the first 'wichcraft, his sandwich shop. In 2010, he opened Colicchio & Sons, and also Riverpark. Shortly after the
September 11 attacks, Colicchio volunteered serving food to rescue workers at Ground Zero.[11]
Colicchio serves on the Food Council at
City Harvest and the Culinary Council at
Food Bank for New York City, two hunger-relief organizations.[14][15] Colicchio has long been involved in food supply chain, restaurant and hunger relief issues.[16]
Television
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.[17] He also won an
Emmy Award in 2010 for Outstanding Reality-Competition Programming as an executive producer of Top Chef, on which he appears.[18]
Colicchio appeared in the fifth episode of the first season of
HBO's Treme as himself along with fellow chefs
Eric Ripert,
David Chang and
Wylie Dufresne. He made another cameo in Season 2 alongside Ripert. In 2011, he made cameos in the Season 23 premiere episode of The Simpsons, "
The Falcon and the D'ohman," and The Smurfs.[19]
Colicchio appeared in The tenth episode of fifth season of Billions (TV Series) as a chef.
Podcasting
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.[20]
He has been married to filmmaker Lori Silverbush since 2001.[11]
He has three sons: Dante (born 1993), his child with an ex-girlfriend,[39] and his two children with Silverbush, Luka Bodhi (born 2009)[40] and Mateo Lev (born 2011).[41]