Formerly the chef of Daniel Boulud's Café Boulud, and the three-star Italian restaurant A Voce, Carmellini now heads up the kitchen at Locanda Verde and The Dutch.

A Cleveland native, Carmellini came to New York for school and got his start in the restaurant biz as a line cook San Domenico. He then took off to Italy, hunting for truffles and making homemade pastas, before returning to New York and entering the world of French cuisine at Lespinasse. Naturally, his time at the French eatery prompted him to travel through France, but he came back to New York for good as a sous chef at Le Cirque and chef at Café Boulud. Earing two James Beard Awards, a Food & Wine Best New Chef nomination, and a three-star review from the New York Times at Café Boulud, Carmellini forged out on his own launching A Voce and subsequently opening Locanda Verde, an Italian joint in the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca, and The Dutch, an American restaurant in Soho and Miami. Like most big name chefs, Carmellini also has a few cookbooks to his name, like Urban Italian and American Flavor. [Image via Getty]