Food & Wine Magazine’s – 1999 “Top Ten Best New Chef”

James Mazzio’s love of food is rooted in the places and people of his childhood.  From his home on the Campbell Soup estate in Gladwyne, Penn., where his father was caretaker and Mazzio grew up harvesting fruits and vegetables, to his Sicilian grandmother’s kitchen, where breads and pastas were made from scratch, Mazzio inherited a healthy respect for nature’s bounty and a penchant for cooking.  His enthusiasm for cuisine and his hunger for knowledge are what have catapulted Mazzio up through the ranks of the culinary world, with practical experience and mentoring by some of the country’s top chefs substituting for formal education and classical training.  

Mazzio’s first professional experience in the food industry was as a fish cleaner, and eventually manager, at Main Line Seafood outside of Philadelphia during his teenage years.  At the age of 19, Mazzio moved to Aspen, Colo. for a dramatic change of scenery and the opportunity to fulfill his self-proclaimed goal of being a “ski bum.”  He found himself busing tables, then waiting tables and bartending at Mezzaluna to pay for his ski pass and equipment.  But Mazzio was compelled to spend more of his days off in the kitchen than on the slopes – asking questions, learning cooking techniques and becoming familiar with ingredients – as well as meeting world-renowned local chefs and restaurateurs.  He moved on to become a line cook and Sous chef at Mezzaluna, and helped the parent company open other locations throughout the country. 

Mazzio returned to Aspen in 1991 to run the small kitchen at the Silver City Grille where he began to seriously pursue his culinary career.  He sought the advice of acquaintance Charles Dale, Executive Chef/Owner of Renaissance in Aspen and one of Food and Wine magazine’s “Best New Chefs in America” in 1995.  Given his background and all the hands-on training Mazzio had already acquired, Dale counseled Mazzio that he would probably be ill suited for culinary school, and recommended an internship at his restaurant instead.  Within days of that initial conversation, Mazzio was working in Dale’s kitchen as a butcher, and two years later he was running the Renaissance kitchen as Sous Chef.

Dale supported and encouraged Mazzio by giving him the opportunity to work in an award-wining kitchen, and involving him in some of the country’s premier culinary events, including cooking for Bon Appetit magazine at the Chicago Field Museum, Brander Vineyard in Santa Barbara, Calif. and the James Beard Foundation in New York City on two occasions.  Dale was also the driving force behind Mazzio studying under other well-known chefs such as Daniel Boulud at Restaurant Daniel in New York City and Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in Napa Valley, Calif. 

As Executive Chef of both Fifteen Degrees & Alicante Restaurant’s, Mazzio brings his culinary inspirations to life.  “I think of a dish, completely plated in my head, and imagine what certain ingredients and flavors will taste like.  I then draw what I see in my mind and write the text, the recipe on which I base the trial runs,” Mazzio says.  “With the help of the great synergy I have with my kitchen staff, I am constantly refining the flavors and tastes of my dishes.  Food, for me, is an evolution.”

“I am thrilled to bring to life my ideas and individual approach to food at Fifteen Degrees,” Mazzio adds.  “Cooking is a passion that has been with me forever, and it is an outward expression of my love of life.”

James brings many valuable years of culinary knowledge and experience to the Triana team, where he will act as the Executive Chef and partner.

Today James is looking forward to advance his culinary abilities and dreams and someday finishing his bio.

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