| Born | May 3, 1980 Bainbridge Island, Washington |
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| Cooking style | Molecular Gastronomy |
| Education | Culinary Institute of America |
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Marcel Vigneron (born May 3, 1980) is an American chef best known as the runner-up of the second season of Top Chef, placing behind Ilan Hall. In 2011, he received his own program on Syfy titled Marcel's Quantum Kitchen, in which he has opened a molecular gastronomy catering company.
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Vigneron is originally from Bainbridge, Washington, and currently resides in the Los Angeles area. He was promoted to prep cook when he was just sixteen, making him the youngest person in that kitchen. [Kitchen needs to be identified] At the time of his appearance on Top Chef, he was a Master Cook at Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas, Nevada. As of November 2008, he was a Executive Sous Chef at The Bazaar in the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.[1]
Marcel attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York and achieved his Associate’s degree in Culinary Arts, as well as a Bachelors Degree in Hospitality Management. At the CIA Marcel enrolled in the teaching assistant program where he served as the Sous Chef to Dwayne Lipuma at the school’s Ristorante Caterina de’ Medici.[2] Since then, he has continued to pursue gastronomy and at the age of 25 gained national notoriety in season two of Bravo’s reality series, Top Chef where he made it to the finals finishing “Runner-Up”.
He has worked around the planet with world-renowned chefs, including Joël Robuchon (named "Chef of the Century" by the Gault Millau) and Michael Mina (awarded “Best Chef of 2002” by the James Beard Foundation during the time of Marcel’s employment). Marcel has also spent time in Barcelona, Spain, where he took classes at El Taller with Chef Ferran Adrià of El Bulli restaurant, which was named the top restaurant in the world in 2007 by Restaurant magazine.
In March 2010 it was announced that Vigneron would star in Marcel's Quantum Kitchen, a reality television show that aired on the Syfy cable network.[3] In each episode, Marcel and his new catering and event company is hired by a demanding client to produce an extraordinary celebration or event. Based on the client’s requests, Marcel dreams up a theme and cuisine for the event, which range from a fairytale graduation party and a Goth-rock fashion show to a birthday dinner held on a platform suspended in mid-air. He and his team of party planners and chefs tap the depths of their imagination and culinary talents to create everything from the immersive décor to a delicious menu that emphasizes Marcel’s unique brand of avant-garde cooking. Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen is a production of Mission Control Media with Executive Producers Michael Agbabian and Dwight Smith.[4]
He returned to the Top Chef series in Top Chef: All-Stars.[5] On the episode that aired on January 19, 2011, Marcel was eliminated from the competition after the Restaurant Wars challenge.
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