One of the culinary world's most celebrated figures, TOM COLICCHIO is perhaps best known as head judge on Bravo's Emmy Award-winning show Top Chef. Tom is also a James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef and restaurateur. TOM COLICCHIO's Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan's Gramercy Park neighborhood earned him The James Beard Foundation's Best Chef-New York" Award in 2000, and his next restaurant, Craft, soon earned three stars and was awarded The James Beard Foundation Award for "Best New Restaurant" in 2002.

That same year, TOM COLICCHIO received The Bon Appétit American Food and Entertaining Award for "Chef of the Year." The New York Times revisited Craft in September 2011, ten years after its debut, upholding its three stars and stating that the restaurant is "as magical and delicious as it was when it opened." The James Beard Foundation awarded Tom another coveted "Outstanding Chef" award in 2010, the culmination of his 30 years of hard work and innovation in the restaurant industry.