Donatella Arpaia is an American restaurateur and a television personality who appears on The Food Network. Arpaia is a regular judge on The Food Network's Iron Chef America

Iron Chef America

Iron Chef America: The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA. The show is produced by Food Network, which also carried a dubbed version of the original Iron Chef. Like the...

and The Next Iron Chef

The Next Iron Chef

The Next Iron Chef, is a limited-run series on the Food Network now in its fourth season. Each season is a stand-alone competition to select a chef to be designated an Iron Chef, who will appear on the Food Network program Iron Chef America....

. She has also appeared on The Isaac Mizrahi Show

Isaac Mizrahi

Isaac Mizrahi is an American TV presenter, fashion designer, and was the creative director of Liz Claiborne. He is best known for his eponymous fashion lines.-Early life:...

, The Martha Stewart Show, The Tony Danza Show

The Tony Danza Show

The Tony Danza Show was a daytime talk show hosted by Tony Danza, but was also a sitcom featuring the same actor ....

, The Today Show and iVillage

IVillage

iVillage, Inc. is a media company that is owned by NBCUniversal. The site focuses on categories targeted at women, including Food, Health, Entertainment, Family, Beauty & Style. Additional businesses and brand extensions within iVillage Networks include iVillage UK, NBC Digital Health Network,...

.

Career

Following a brief career as a corporate attorney, Arpaia opened her first restaurant, Bellini in 1998. Her other restaurants include davidburke & donatella, which has received four stars from Forbes and the Five Diamond Award

Five Diamond award

The AAA Five Diamond Award is the highest level of the AAA Diamond Ratings System for restaurants and lodgings administered by AAA ....

, Anthos, a Michelin Star Greek restaurant which was named Best New Restaurant by New York

New York (magazine)

New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...

and Esquire

Esquire (magazine)

Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...

in November 2007, and nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award

James Beard Foundation Award

The James Beard Foundation Awards were established in 1990 and are often called "The Oscars of Food." Held on the first weekend in May, the Awards honor the finest chefs, restaurants, wine professionals, journalists, cookbook authors, restaurant designers, and other food professionals in the...

 for Best New Restaurant., and Mia Dona, opened in February 2008.

Zagat named Arpaia, "The Hostess with the Mostest," in March 2006 and Crain's

Crain Communications Inc.

Crain Communications Inc is a publishing conglomerate based in Detroit, Michigan. The company publishes a variety of trade newspapers, including some city-based business newspapers, such as Crain's Cleveland Business, Crain's Chicago Business, Crain's Detroit Business, and Crain's New York Business...

named her one of its "40 under 40", and the New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

named Arpaia the 31st "Most Powerful Woman" in Manhattan.

In mid-2009, Arpaia and Michael Psilakis opened Eos in Miami’s Viceroy Hotel. The restaurant is Arpaia's first outside of New York.

Education

Arpaia received her bachelor's degree from Fairfield University

Fairfield University

Fairfield University is a private, co-educational undergraduate and master's level teaching-oriented university located in Fairfield, Connecticut, in the New England region of the United States. It was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1942, and today is one of 28 member institutions of the...

 in Fairfield, Connecticut

Fairfield, Connecticut

Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...

 and her juris doctor

Juris Doctor

Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 from the St. John's University School of Law

St. John's University School of Law

St. John's University School of Law is a Roman Catholic law school in Queens, New York City, affiliated with St. John's University. The School of Law was founded in 1925, and confers Juris Doctor degrees and degrees for Master of Laws in Bankruptcy and Master of Laws in U.S. Studies. Over 13,000 St...

 in Queens, New York. She studied at the French Culinary Institute

French Culinary Institute

The French Culinary Institute , also known as The International Culinary Center has locations in SoHo, New York City and in the San Francisco Bay Area of California....

 and the Italian Culinary Academy. She attended St. Agnes High School (now Kellenberg Memorial High School

Kellenberg Memorial High School

Kellenberg Memorial High School is a Roman Catholic college-preparatory school in Uniondale, Long Island, New York. Kellenberg is the second Marianist school on Long Island and prides itself on high academic standards combined with a strong focus on faith....

) in Uniondale

Uniondale, New York

Uniondale is a hamlet as well as a suburb of New York City in Nassau County, New York, United States, on Long Island, in the Town of Hempstead. The population was 24,759 at the 2010 United States Census.-Geography:...

, Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

.

External links