Todd English is a celebrity chef, restaurateur, author, entrepreneur, and television personality based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He is best known for his restaurant, Olives, located in both Boston and Las Vegas, plus his TV cooking show, Food Trip with Todd English, on PBS. In 2005 he was a judge on the PBS show Cooking Under Fire. 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. 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. In addition to the Boston restaurant, English holds a second Olives at the five-star Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, and a third in New York City in Union Square, which was recently renovated and under the direction of new executive chef Patrick Malone. Todd English has another restaurant called Figs, which is the name of two high-end pizzerias in the Boston area, one in the Beacon Hill neighborhood and another in Charlestown. Figs won the “Hot Concept” award from Nation’s Restaurant News magazine.
Restaurants:
Beso– Los Angeles and Las Vegas
Bonfire– Boston and New York
Todd English– on the RMS Queen Mary 2 and MS Queen Victoria
BlueZoo– at Walt Disney World Dophin Hotel in Orland, Florida
Da Campo Osteria– in the Il Lugano Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Todd English P.U.B– in the CityCenter resort complex in Las Vegas, NV
Fig’s– at The Macys at the Gardens Mall, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Plaza Food Hall– at the Plaza Hotel New York City
Figs at 29 Fair– Nantucket, Massachusetts
Tuscany at Mohegan Sun Casino- Uncasville, Connecticut
Ember Room– New York City
Ça Va– Intercontinental Hotel in Times Square New York, NY
MXDC– Washington, DC