Antonia Lofaso | |
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Born | 1976 (age 47–48) Long Island, New York, U.S. |
Education | International Culinary Center |
Culinary career | |
Current restaurant(s)
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Television show(s)
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Antonia Marie Lofaso (born 1976) [1] is an American celebrity chef and restaurateur. She has appeared on the reality television shows Top Chef , Chopped , Cutthroat Kitchen and Restaurant Startup , among others. Lofaso owns the restaurants Black Market Liquor Bar, Scopa Italian Roots, and DAMA in Los Angeles, California. [2]
Lofaso attended the French Culinary Institute (now known as the International Culinary Center) in New York City; during that time, she was also a manager at Sean Combs' restaurant, Justin. [2] She then worked as a chef at the Los Angeles restaurants Spago and Foxtail. [2]
Lofaso is currently a co-owner and the executive chef of the Los Angeles restaurants Black Market Liquor Bar, DAMA, and Scopa Italian Roots. [3]
In 2008, Lofaso appeared as a contestant on season four of the competition series Top Chef , also known as Top Chef: Chicago ; she came in fourth place. [8] She appeared on season eight of Top Chef, known as Top Chef: All-Stars , from 2010 to 2011, coming in third place. In 2014 she appeared on an episode of Top Chef Duels , competing against Mike Isabella, who had beaten her on Top Chef: All-Stars ; she won the "duel."
In 2012, Lofaso appeared on the short-lived Game Show Network show Beat the Chefs ; she was one of three professional chefs that the amateur chef contestants had to compete against. The show ran for four episodes.
She was one of a rotating group of judges on the 2013 to 2017 Food Network competition show Cutthroat Kitchen . She also competed in (and won) Cutthroat's special 2016 "Judging Judges" episode, beating fellow regular judges Simon Majumdar and Jet Tila as well as Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian. She is a judge on Guy's Grocery Games , which premiered in 2013. She has also competed (and won) frequently on that show, beginning a long-standing association with Guy Fieri who calls her the "Warrior Princess" [9]
Lofaso served as one of the restaurant culinary consultants for the CNBC television show Restaurant Startup (seasons 2 and 3), [10] in 2015 and 2016. In 2020, she appeared on Selena Gomez's cooking show, Selena + Chef . She also made an appearance on the 16th season of The Bachelorette during the hometown episode.
Lofaso was one of four chefs featured in the Fieri-produced documentary film Restaurant Hustle 2020: All On The Line , focusing on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their lives and businesses. She returned for the film's sequel documentary, Restaurant Hustle 2021: Back In Business.
In January 2022, Lofaso appeared as the lead judge on Guy’s Chance Of A Lifetime . She was the head judge on the Food Network competition show The Julia Child Challenge , which aired in March and April 2022. [11] In the summers of 2022 and 2023, she hosted Beachside Brawl , and from August through November 2022, she served as co-host of Guy's Ultimate Game Night . In January 2025, she will co-host season 28 of Worst Cooks in America , replacing original host Anne Burrell.
Lofaso was born in 1976 on Long Island, New York. When she was eight, Lofaso moved to Northridge, Los Angeles, California with her parents. [12] [1] Lofaso has Italian (Sicilian) and Jewish roots. [13]
Lofaso's daughter Xea Myers was born in 2000 from her relationship with the late Jamaican rapper Heavy D. [14]
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'My dad's Sicilian and my mom is half Italian and half Jewish,' says Bravo's Top Chef All Star.