What Is Tom Colicchio's Net Worth?
Tom Colicchio is an American celebrity chef who has a net worth of $20 million. Tom Colicchio co-founded the Gramercy Tavern in New York City and also served as its executive chef. He also founded Crafted Hospitality, which includes a number of notable restaurants around the United States. He is also known for being the head judge on the reality series "Top Chef" on Bravo and is a main consulting producer for Top Chef Masters.
Early Life
Tom Colicchio was born on August 15, 1962, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He is the son of Beverly Ann and Thomas Patrick, both of whom have Italian heritage. Tom grew up with his older brother, Michael, and his younger brother, Philip John. His father worked as a union organizer. Colicchio attended Elizabeth High School, graduating in 1980.
Career
Colicchio knew he was interested in pursuing a career as a chef. He worked his way up through the restaurant ranks until he was serving as a sous-chef to chef Thomas Keller at Rakel in the mid-1980s. As his career developed and he took more leadership roles in the kitchen, Tom began envisioning opening up his own restaurant with his business partner, Danny Meyer. In July of 1994, the two opened Gramercy Tavern in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan in New York. Colicchio was a co-founder, co-owner, and executive chef of the restaurant. Gramercy Tavern was voted the Most Popular Restaurant in New York City in both 2003 and 2005. In 2006, Tom sold his interest in the restaurant and is no longer affiliated with it.
Meanwhile, Colicchio had been working on other endeavors. In 2001, he opened the first Craft restaurant with his group, Crafted Hospitality, one block south of Gramercy Tavern. The following year, he opened Craftsteak at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In 2003, he opened 'wichcraft, a sandwich shop concept.
In 2006, Colicchio got involved with the "Top Chef" franchise at its inception. He served as the head judge of the televised cooking competition. He later served as the main consulting producer on Bravo's spin-off series, "Top Chef Masters." In 2010, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Programming as the executive producer of "Top Chef." Tom has also been involved with other television and film projects. In 2011, he had a cameo in the 23rd season of "The Simpsons" as himself and appeared in an episode of "The Smurfs." Colicchio also appeared in the tenth episode of the fifth season of "Billions" as a chef character.
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In 2013, Tom appeared in the documentary film "A Place at the Table" and was also an executive producer on the project. The film was directed by his wife, Lori Silverbush, and concerns the issue of hunger and food insecurity in the United States. As a companion to the film, a book entitled "A Place at the Table: The Crisis of 49 Million Hungry Americans and How to Solve It" was also released. Colicchio contributed content to the book. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Tom also served as the host of the reality series "Best New Restaurant" in 2015. He later appeared as himself in the fifth episode of the first season of the HBO series "Treme."
He continued opening new restaurants through Crafted Hospitality in different cities around the United States. He currently owns the Craft restaurant with locations in New York City and Los Angeles, as well as Craftsteak and Tom Colicchio's Heritage Steak in Las Vegas. In New York, Tom operates Small Batch in Garden City and also 'wichcraft and Temple Court in New York City. In 2010, he won the Outstanding Chef award from the James Beard Foundation. He has also been involved with opening over ten additional restaurants in New York City, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, and San Francisco that have since closed.
Colicchio has authored three cookbooks. He published his first book in 2000, entitled "Think Like a Chef." In 2003, he published "Craft of Cooking: Notes and Recipes from a Restaurant Kitchen." In 2009, he wrote "'wichcraft: Craft a Sandwich into a Meal—and a Meal into a Sandwich." He has also gotten involved in podcasting. In June 2020, he launched his podcast "Citizen Chef" via the iHeartRadio Podcast Network. On his show, he discusses issues relating to food, politics, and other current events.
Personal Life
In 2001, Colicchio married filmmaker Lori Silverbush. The couple has welcomed two sons – Luka Bodhi in 2009 and Mateo Lev in 2011. Tom additionally has another son, Dante, whom he had with a former girlfriend in 1993.
Colicchio has also devoted his time and resources to philanthropic work. He serves on the Food Council at City Harvest and the Culinary Council at Food Bank for New York City, both hunger relief organizations. He has also been involved with organizations devoted to improving food supply chain issues to alleviate hunger.
