Todd English | |
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Born |
William Todd English August 29, 1960 Amarillo, Texas |
Alma mater | Culinary Institute of America |
Occupation | Restaurateur, celebrity chef, writer |
Spouse(s) | Olivia Disch English (divorced) |
Children | 3 |
William Todd English (born August 29, 1960) is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, and television personality, based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is best known for his TV cooking show, Food Trip with Todd English, on PBS. In 2005 he was a judge on the PBS show Cooking Under Fire.
His life and career received a chapter in Super Chef by Juliette Rossant who had written previously about English for the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Todd English also works as lead chef for Delta Air Lines (US).
English was born in Amarillo, Texas, grew up in Sandy Springs, Georgia and later Branford, Connecticut. He matriculated at Guilford College in North Carolina on a baseball scholarship, but quit and entered the Culinary Institute of America in 1978 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.
English has been married once, to Olivia Disch English, his classmate at the Culinary Institute of America, but they divorced; the couple has three children. He was engaged to Erica Wang in 2009 but the wedding was called off.
English's first restaurant, Olives, opened in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston in April 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 has been cited by the Health Department for sanitation discrepancies and animal waste hazards.