Todd English began his cooking career at the young age of 15 when he first entered the doors of a professional kitchen. At 20, he attended the Culinary Institute of America and graduated with honors. He continued to hone his craft with Jean Jacques Rachou at New York's La Côte Basque and then in Italy where he apprenticed at the well-established Dal Pescatore in Canto Sull O'lio and Paraccuchi in Locando D'Angello. It was in Italy that Todd developed his unique style and approach to cooking where he could draw from his Italian heritage. Returning to the United States at 25, he opened the award-winning Northern Italian restaurant Michela's in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served as executive chef for 3 years to high praise from both the press and the public.

Todd is chef and owner of Olives in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Olives began as a 50-seat storefront restaurant run by Todd and designed by his wife Olivia, which drew national and international attention with English's interpretive rustic Mediterranean cuisine. Olives has since expanded. Other Olives locations include Olives Las Vegas at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Olives DC in the heart of Washington, D.C. and Olives Aspen location at the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen, Colorado. Todd has also opened Miramar at The Inn at National Hall in Westport, Connecticut, Tamarind in the new Harods Hotel in Eilat, Israel, and Greg Norman's Australian Grille in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with golf great Greg Norman. Todd English also has four Figs restaurants in the greater Boston area, which serve traditional and not-so-traditional pizzas and handmade pastas. Figs has been named "Best Pizza" by Boston magazine, USA Today, Zagat and Cooking Light magazine. The Boston Herald also awarded the Figs concept three stars.

Just opened is Todd's new seafood concept, KingFish Hall, in Boston's historic Faneuil Hall area. A Figs outpost will open at the La Guardia airport this summer in the Central Terminal. Plans to open Olives New York in the new W Hotel at Union Square in fall 2000 are under way, and a steakhouse concept will open at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston by 2001.

Olives has received numerous accolades including being voted one of the "Top Ten Restaurants" by Esquire magazine, "Best New Restaurant" by Boston magazine, "Best Food" by Gourmet magazine and is consistently named "Boston's #1 Favorite Restaurant" by Zagat.

In Spring 1991, Todd once again caught the culinary world's eye when he was named the "National Rising Star Chef" by the James Beard Foundation, and in 1994 named "Best Chef in the Northeast". Todd was also the recipient of the first Robert Mondavi Award for Culinary Excellence and appeared on the companion public television cooking series, "America's Rising Star Chefs." Olives was also named an Ivy Award winner by Restaurants and Institutions magazine, has received the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences' Five Star Diamond Award and most recently was inducted into Nation's Restaurant News 1999 Fine Dining Hall of Fame.

Chef English has been featured in Bon Appétit, The New York Times, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Art Culinaire, Food Arts, Home, GQ, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, and countless other local and national publications. He was also featured on the cover of Boston magazine and named one of Nation's Restaurant News "Top 50 Tastemakers."

Television credits include his public television series, Cooking In with Todd English, produced by Connecticut Public Television, Martha Stewart Living, TVFN's Chef du Jour, The Main Ingredient and In Food Today, CBS This Morning, Discovery Channel's Great Chefs of the Northeast series, WGBH's Hot Off the Grill, public television's America's Rising Star Chefs, and Todd has authored the critically acclaimed cookbooks. The Olives Table, and The Figs Table published by Simon & Schuster. He is currently working on The Olives Dessert Table to be released in November 2000.

Todd is very involved with several local and national charities including the Anthony Spinazzola Foundation, AIDS Action Committee, Share Our Strength, OXFAM, the Boys and Girls Clubs, Big Brother and UNICEF.

Todd resides in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife Olivia and their three children Oliver, Isabelle and Simon.