Todd English

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This biography of a living person does not cite any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. (November 2009) Find sources: (Todd English – news, books, scholar)

William Todd English (born August 29, 1960) is a celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, entrepreneur, and television star based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He is best known for his flagship restaurant, Olives, located in Charlestown, Massachusetts and his cooking show, Food Trip with Todd English, currently airing on PBS nation wide. On Food Trip, Todd travels to domestic and international locations 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.

Contents

[edit] Restaurants

[edit] Olives

English's flagship restaurant, Olives, opened in Charlestown, Massachusetts 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. During one two-week span in 2002, the city of Boston twice shuttered Olives Charlestown for health-code violations (Boston Magazine: "Reconsidering Todd English", 2009). Rodent infestations were cited (Boston Health Department, 2002). English's Washington DC Olives restaurant (located just blocks from the White House), as well as his sushi parlour closed suddenly in early 2009, with the employees of both establishments given just a few hours notice.

In addition to the orignial Boston restaurant, Olives now has two further locations; at the W Union Square Hotel in New York City; and the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

English has now partnered with club promoter Jon B, of the former Guest House and Home night clubs in New York City, to open a restaurant in the West Chelsea area of New York City.

[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

"BlueZoo" redirects here. For the new wave band, see Blue Zoo. For the computer animation studio, see Blue-Zoo.

English's other restaurants include:

Restaurant Tuscany.svg
  • Beso a Spanish restaurant concept partnering with actress Eva Longoria-Parker in Los Angeles
  • Tuscany, an Italian restaurant at the Mohegan Sun resort in Uncasville, Connecticut
  • Kingfish Hall, a seafood restaurant at Faneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown Boston
  • Bonfire, a steakhouse at Boston's Logan Airport and JFK Airport in New York
  • Todd English, an alternative restaurant aboard the ocean liners of Cunard Line
  • BlueZoo, a restaurant at the Dolphin Hotel at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
  • Da Campo Osteria, in the Il Lugano Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, FL, featuring views of the intracoastal waterway, Tuscan cuisine

English currently works with American actress Eva Longoria at Beso, a Mexican restaurant in Hollywood.

[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] Awards and 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
  • James Beard Broadcast Media Award Winner for Television Food Special: "Food Trip with Todd English" in 2007

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_English"