Johnny Iuzzini

Celebrity chef and television personality Johnny Iuzzini rose to fame in the early 2000s on the strength of his pastry creations for several high-end New York restaurants, which he parlayed into a culinary empire that included cookbooks, his own consulting company and appearances on "The Great American Baking Show" (ABC, 2015-), among other programs. Born John Joseph Iuzzini III in New York City and raised in the state's Catskills region, he developed an interest in pastry as a young man by experimenting with box cake recipes. By his teenaged years, he was studying culinary arts at a vocational-technical high school and earning his first experience in a restaurant environment as a dishwasher at the Osiris Country Club. After earning second place in a New York city culinary competition, Iuzzini was referred to the chef at the River Café in Brooklyn; there, he began assisting pastry chef Eric Gouteryron with his creations. Eventually, he devoted his full-time energies to pastry-making, and studied Baking and Pastry Arts at the Culinary Institute of America while also honing his craft through an externship with Pastry Chef Lincoln Carson. He was introduced to Chef Francois Payard, who hired him to work with him as pastry chef and sous chef, respectively, at Daniel and Payard Patisserie. Iuzzini took a break from his duties in 1998 to study pastry technique at some of the most acclaimed patisseries in France, and then returned to the States to work for Chef Daniel Boulud at Café Boulud and later, at the new Daniel, where he was named executive pastry sous chef. Iuzzini's reputation as one of the city's best pastry creators took off in earnest in 2002, when Chef Jean-Georges Vongericthen tapped him to serve as Executive Pastry Chef at Restaurant Jean Georges; while there, he was nominated 2003's Outstanding Pastry Chef by the James Beard Foundation and chosen one of the ten best pastry chefs in America by Pastry Art and Design magazine. He moved to Vongericthen's Perry Street in 2005 before winning the Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2006; the following year, Forbes.com named him one of the ten most influential chefs in the United States. By 2008, he had published his first cookbook, Dessert Fourplay, and within two years' time, Iuzzini was added television personality to his sizable resume by serving as judge for "Top Chef: Just Desserts" (Bravo, 2010-2011). He then left Restaurant Jean Georges to concentrate on Sugar Fueled Inc., his own pastry consulting company and to serve as a member of Macy's Culinary Council, for which he participated in live demonstrations of pastry techniques across the United States. In 2014, Iuzzini partnered with the Le Meridien hotel and resort chain to create signature eclairs for their global locations, and added a new television outlet the following year when he signed as serve as judge for "The Great American Baking Show." His lifelong dream of designing his own chocolate came to fruition in 2017 when he launched Chocolate by Johnny Iuzzini, a line of handmade bars, but the success was sorely tempered by multiple allegations of sexual harassment by various women, which spurred ABC to pull the third season of "American Baking Show" from its airwaves before the season even aired.