Antoinette Bruno left a lucrative job on Wall Street to feed her passion and desire for a more hospitable community: food. She enrolled in the Chefs’ Program at Ritz Escoffier in Paris and earned her culinary stripes after graduating working in restaurants in the south of France
Upon returning to the US, she embarked on a new culinary career. In 1999, she became CEO, combining her culinary training with her business know-how. The mission statement of StarChefs.com became about giving chefs the tools they need to be the best they can be in this fractious and competitive industry.
After Antoinette Bruno found success on Wall Street, she realized something was missing from her life. It was an intimacy with food that she craved—the kind of closeness that she felt when she was living in Europe, and working her way through school in restaurants. Certainly, her Wall Street job afforded her the luxury of eating at the finest restaurants in Manhattan, but that wasn’t enough. She left behind her lucrative career and
In 1990, it was Bruno’s goal to make working in the culinary industry not a dead end job but a prestigious career.
In 2001, Bruno became Editor-in-Chief, leading StarChefs.com to become the industry authority on chefs, food trends, and the culinary world. The Rising Star awards were launched in 2002 as a platform for young chefs to be recognized broadly. Today, StarChefs.com has awarded 397 Rising Star Awards at 30 Rising Star Revue galas in 15 cities. Bruno and her partner Will Blunt launched the StarChefs.com International Chefs Congress in 2006. Today 1,500 culinary professionals come together annually to discuss what is going on in the industry, their challenges, new ideas, trends, tools, and to share techniques.
Traveling throughout the country and the world, Bruno and her editorial team are on the ground meeting and tasting the food of countless chefs, pastry chefs, sommeliers, and mixologists. In 2005, Bruno developed a passion for photography and began to give the StarChefs.com audience a visual account of the food she was tasting. The culture of photography and now video has become part of the fabric of the StarChefs.com publishing philosophy. With the advent of social media, Bruno now tweets all of her tastings to provide chefs inspiration as they create new dishes.
Prior to helming StarChefs.com, Bruno earned a post-graduate degree from the London School of Economics and her MBA from Harvard Business School and worked at Salomon Brothers and The Body Shop. She is a member of IACP, The James Beard Foundation, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, and Women Presidents’ Organization.