I’m an American chef and restaurateur who lives and cooks in New York City. I’ve been in the game for twenty years, and I’ve cooked in some amazing places and tasted some amazing things. I love to cook food from all over the world, but for the last few years, I’ve been into Italian food. For me, cooking is all about having a good time and making people happy.

I started cooking at age fourteen at a local Italian joint. Then I trained at a fine-dining French place on the lake in my hometown, Seven Hills, OH. I moved east to go to school, and I spent my weekends cooking for New York Governor Mario Cuomo in Albany.

After I graduated, I came to Manhattan and spent some time on the line at San Domenico. Then I took off for Italy to work for Valentino Mercatile at San Domenico in Emilio-Romagna, plus a few other spots that were good enough to take me in. I hunted truffles, learned from pastafarians, and hung around with some Italians who made wine, cheese, and prosciutto.

I came back to New York to work with Gray Kunz at Lespinasse. After three years on the line there (and a four-star review in the New York Times), I headed back to Europe, where I spent a year cooking and traveling in France and England. My next gig: opening sous chef at the new Le Cirque in Manhattan. In 1998, I opened Café Boulud as chef de cuisine. Six years, two James Beard Awards, a Food & Wine Best New Chef nod and a three-star review from the New York Times later, I launched an Italian restaurant in Madison Square Park. I haven't been affiliated with that restaurant since 2008, but I've got some good memories: it's where I earned my first Michelin star.

In 2008, I also published my first cookbook, written with my wife, Gwen Hyman: Urban Italian: True Stories and Simple Recipes from a Life In Food (Bloomsbury). And in 2009, I opened Locanda Verde in Robert DeNiro’s Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca.

As you're reading this, I'm working on a couple of new projects: I'm writing my second cookbook with Gwen (look for it in fall 2011, courtesy of Ecco/Harper Collins), and I also happen to be in the middle of opening our second restaurant, at 131 Sullivan Street in SoHo.