Top Chef Masters 2 - Meet Tony Mantuano

Regarded internationally as an influential culinary force, Chef Tony Mantuano is the chef/partner at Spiaggia, the only four-star Italian restaurant in Chicago. Awarded the 2005 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Midwest, Mantuano worked in several Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy before opening Spiaggia in 1984 to critical acclaim, and has since gone on to win The Chicago Tribune’s highest culinary prize, The Good Eating Award, and named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 1986.

His other ventures include Mangia Trattoria in his hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin and as the chef/partner of Terzo Piano at new The Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. Mantuano’s first cookbook, The Spiaggia Cookbook, was lauded by Food & Wine magazine as one of the top 25 cookbooks of 2004. In 2008, Mantuano co-authored Wine Bar Food with wife Cathy, which was the inspiration for WINE BAR FOOD outposts at the 2008 and 2009 U.S. Open Tennis Champions. He has also made numerous television appearances and has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and Food & Wine and is a frequent contributor to local Chicago television and radio stations.

In addition to his 2005 honor, Mantuano’s Spiaggia also received James Beard Foundation nominations for Outstanding Restaurant in America in 2006 and 2007 and for Outstanding Service in 2008 and 2009. The Mantuanos were honored with the keys to San Martino in the Italian region of Molise (the ancestral home of Cathy Mantuano) for serving authentic Italian cuisine to President Barack Obama, a long-time guest who celebrated his presidential election victory at Spiaggia in 2008.