Stephen Kalt graduated with a general business degree from the University of Florida. His first business venture was a six-unit chain of casual Italian restaurants in East Tennessee called “The Best Italian Restaurant” that he developed with his brother. He eventually sold the business but this first project could be considered the launching pad of a very successful career.

Stephen relocated to New York in the late '80s and met famed Chef Daniel Boulud, who had just received four stars from the New York Times at the helm of Le Cirque in New York City. Boulud hired Kalt in March of 1987 and Kalt worked his way up from Chef Degustation to Chef Saucier over a two year period. The skills learned under Daniel’s tutelage would lead to a Chef de Cuisine position at nationally recognized Arcadia under renowned Chef Ann Rosenzweig. In 1990, Stephen decided to go down a different path. With his experience as a multi-unit operator and years of training at Le Cirque and Arcadia, he joined with two partners and started a hospitality consulting business based in New York City. Ken Friedman was an experienced Public Relations executive. Andrew Zimmern, now the star of his own Travel Channel program Bizarre Foods, was trained in BOH systems and operations. Together they formed Epicus Group, focusing on Food, Service, Systems, and Design development for restaurants. Two years later, Kalt decided he preferred to work independently, bringing in associates on a project by project basis. In 1992, Stephen Kalt Associates was formed.

Stephen was then immersed in development of a myriad of casual, casual fine dining, and fine dining restaurants ranging from Kelley and Ping, a Hong Kong Noodle Bar, to Fresco and Torre di Pisa, Italian concepts, to Riodizio in New York and Samba Grill in Las Vegas, both Brazilian Steak houses, among many others. Stephen Kalt Associates worked on concept development, business plan development, menu development, design, as well as systems and service training for start-up restaurant concepts as well as existing concepts.

In 1994, Kalt became the Co-creator and Chef of acclaimed Mediterranean restaurant, Spartina. The food was modern Spanish, Provencal, Italian, North African, and Eastern Mediterranean. Spartina was a relatively early pioneer of Tribeca, capturing a great combination of neighborhood artists and destination foodies. Food and Wine Magazine voted Spartina one of the “Top Five Neighborhood Restaurants in New York” in 1999. Spartina received Three Stars from the Daily News and Two Stars from the New York Times. In early 2004, Kalt received a call from Steve Wynn lieutenant Elizabeth Blau asking him to join the team at Wynn Las Vegas. Stephen agreed to move to Las Vegas and become the Chef/ Operator of Corsa Cucina, a Modern Italian concept. Stephen wrote the service manual and participated in all initial service training, developed and assisted with the overall beverage program including the wine list and specialty drink program. Stephen left Corsa Cucina and Wynn Las Vegas in September of 2007 to pursue other opportunities in consulting, development, and management of a variety of hospitality projects.

Stephen Kalt is now the Executive Chef/Partner of Forneletto Cucina Italiana and Pizzeria Roma at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City as well as the Chef/Partner of Caulfield’s Bar and Dining Room at The Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. Stephen’s company foodTHINK is in negotiation with a major gaming company to develop a Las Vegas based restaurant. Stephen recently competed on the Food Network series Iron Chef and is at work on a book featuring his cooking at Fornelletto, “Cooking At The Jersey Shore”. He lives in California with his family.

Cooking, Food & Beverage, Chef