Geoffrey Zakarian

About

Geoffrey Zakarian (born July 25, 1959) is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author. He is the executive chef of several restaurants in New York City, Atlantic City, and Miami. He is featured on several television shows on the Food Network, including Chopped and The Next Iron Chef. In 2011, on The Next Iron Chef he won an opportunity to join Iron Chef America.

Zakarian was born July 25, 1959, in Worcester, Massachusetts to an Armenian-American father, musician George Zakarian, and a Polish-American mother, Viola (née Hekowicz). Zakarian has a sister, Virginia, and a brother, George. Geoffrey graduated from Burncoat High School in 1977. He earned a degree in economics from Worcester State University and then went to France, where he decided to be a chef.
He began his culinary career with an associate degree from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. As an apprentice chef, he began his work under chef Daniel Boulud at Le Cirque, where he was named a “Chef de Cuisine” from 1982 to 1987.

In 1990, he became the executive chef at 44 in the Royalton Hotel in midtown Manhattan. William Grimes of The New…