Todd English

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William Todd English (born 1960) is a celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, entrepreneur, and television star based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is best known for his cooking show, Cooking With Todd English, which appears on public television and is produced by Connecticut Public Television; and for his flagship restaurant, Olives, located in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Todd now stars in Food Trip with Todd English, a half-hour program produced by WGBH that debuted in January 2007. On Food Trip, Todd travels to domestic and international locations (Tokyo, Nantucket, New York City, Boston, Phoenix, and Tucson) to explore different regional dishes and culinary traditions. At the end of each show he returns to his home kitchen at Olives in Boston to create a dish inspired by the ingredients and cuisine of each locale he has visited.

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[edit] Biography

English was born in Amarillo, Texas and grew up in Sandy Springs, Georgia. He matriculated at Guilford College in North Carolina on a baseball scholarship, but quit and entered the Culinary Institute of America at the age of 20 and graduated in 1982. He worked under Jean-Jacques Rachou at New York’s La Cote Basque, and then moved to Italy to work at several restaurants there. He returned to the United States at age 25 and served as the Executive Chef of the Italian restaurant Michela’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts for three years before opening the original Olives restaurant in 1989.

In 1998, English partnered with Boston developer James Cafarelli to form The Olive Group, aimed at developing new restaurant properties using English's name and celebrity status. (The new corporation did not include English's existing restaurants.) Although the venture was successful in getting new restaurants off the ground, reviews for some new properties were tepid, and English's existing restaurants began to suffer, culminating in the closure of Olives in 2002 for health department violations. In June, 2002, Cafarelli sued English for non-payment of salary and deferred compensation; on the same day, a major Olive Group creditor also filed suit over the terms of one of its loans. The suit with Cafarelli was eventually settled, with Cafarelli gaining control of one of the group's restaurants, Rustic Kitchen, in Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace as well as the rights for a Florida restaurant.

English has been married once, to Olivia English, but they are divorced. They have three children, named Oliver, Isabelle, and Simon.

[edit] Restaurants

[edit] Olives

English's flagship restaurant, Olives, opened in Charlestown in April of 1989. The restaurant's name is a tribute to his then-wife, Olivia. The food is "rustic Mediterranean," with a strong influence from Italian cuisine. The restaurant was named Best New Restaurant by Boston magazine, and has been honored as Best Food and Top Table by Gourmet magazine. Olives is known for two signature desserts - a molten chocolate cake and a vanilla bean soufflé - which must be ordered with the main meal.

Olives now has locations in Union Square, New York City; the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas; Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado;Tokyo, Biloxi, Mississippi.

[edit] Figs

Figs is a small chain of high-end pizzerias in the Boston area, with two additional locations at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. Figs offers authentic, Neapolitan-style pizzas with very thin crusts, served on inverted sheet pans, as well as salads and pastas. Figs won the "Hot Concept" award from Nation’s Restaurant News magazine.

[edit] Other restaurants

English's other restaurants include:

English is currently working with American actress Eva Longoria to open up a Mexican restaurant in Hollywood. English has also been involved in several restaurants that no longer exist:

[edit] Books

English has authored or co-authored three cookbooks: The Olives Table, The Figs Table, and The Olives Dessert Table, all published by Simon & Schuster.

[edit] Protegés

Several notable Boston-area chefs have gotten their starts working with English or at Olives, including:

  • Barbara Lynch (No. 9 Park)
  • Marc Orfaly (Pigalle)
  • Paul O'Connell (Chez Henri)
  • Josh McGinley (Bon Fire)
  • Chris Menke (Basil's)
  • Jon Rafkind (Noob's)

[edit] Awards & Honors

  • Named "National Rising Star Chef" by the James Beard Foundation in 1991
  • Named "Best Chef in the Northeast by the James Beard Foundation in 1994
  • Named one of the nation's "Top 50 Tastemakers" by Nation's Restaurant News in 1999
  • Named Restaurateur of the Year by Bon Appetit magazine in 2001
  • Named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2001
  • Inducted into the James Beard "Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America" in 2004

[edit] External links

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