CHEF VINCENT CORTESE
Chef Vincent Cortese was born and raised in Edison, New Jersey. His path into cooking was anything but planned—after high school, he took a job at Ruby Tuesday to pay for college, and a two-week kitchen rotation during management training changed everything. The energy, the challenges, the craft: he was hooked. He enrolled in culinary school shortly after, joining an Italian mom & pop restaurant on the side, where he learned foundational technique and fell in love with the simplicity of good food made well.
His fine dining education began at The Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick, one of New Jersey's premier restaurants, where he rose to Sous Chef within a year and spent three years total. He then made the move to New York City, joining Del Posto (1 Michelin Star) as a line cook—an experience that ignited a deep passion for Italian cuisine, particularly crudo and pasta. He advanced to Sous Chef before moving on to Restaurant Daniel (2 Michelin Stars), where he worked every line station over two years, absorbing the rigor and precision of one of the city's most celebrated French kitchens. A brief chapter in Baltimore followed, opening an Italian restaurant as Sous Chef alongside Bryan Voltaggio, before he returned to New York and to Del Posto, where he rose to Chef de Cuisine and led the kitchen from 2015 until its pandemic-era closure.
Chef Vincent went on to serve as Executive Chef of Bar Boulud on the Upper West Side, deepening his command of classic rustic French cooking, and then as opening Executive Chef of Bar56 in Dumbo, Brooklyn, where he brought a fine dining Italian sensibility to an intimate, casual setting. He is currently the Chef and Owner of Twist Catering NYC. His cuisine is defined by high-end Italian cooking—bright with fresh herbs and citrus, refined in technique, and centered on the dishes he loves most: crudo and housemade pasta. He is equally at home with classic French and has led Spanish-inspired dinners as well.
