Actually, Todd English started with his training at the CIA in NY and then at La Cote Basque in NYC, then moved to Italy and worked in several restaurants there. He returned to the US at 25 years of age to run the kitchen at Michela’s in Cambridge, MA for 3 years. Then he opened Olives in Charlestown in 1989. Then came Figs (pizzeria).
In 1991, 1994 and 2004 he won James Beard awards for his cooking.
I met him 1993 and stole (borrowed) his pizza (flat bread) recipe. I ate in Olives a number of times and each time sent the same message back to the kitchen after refusing to order from the waiter, "Tell the chef to serve me the dish of which he is most proud tonight". After the 2nd time I did this, he came out to see who I was. (The same thing worked with Ming Tsai, and in restaurants all over the world).
Now Todd has places in airports, Vegas, NYC and (I haven't checked todays' paper) I'm sure others.
The bad news is, the way the Food network is developing their new programming, the only place we are likely to see chef's like Todd English is as guest chef on Iron Chef.
The only "real" cooking shows are daytime re-runs of stuff from 3, 4,5, and 6 years ago.
The good news is (for the ladies) is that he is now divorced from his first wife, Olivia, with whom he had 3 children.
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