Stephanie Izard is an American chef and television personality best known as the first female chef to win Bravo's Top Chef, taking the title during its fourth season.
16 Facts About Stephanie Izard
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Stephanie Izard is the co-owner and executive chef of three award-winning Chicago restaurants, Girl and the Goat, Little Goat, and Duck Duck Goat, and opened her first restaurant, Scylla as chef-owner at the age of 27.
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Stephanie Izard has made a number of appearances on Top Chef since her win, both as a guest judge on subsequent seasons and as a participant in Top Chef Duels.
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In 2017, Stephanie Izard competed in the Food Network series Iron Chef Gauntlet, where she overall defeated chefs Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Masaharu Morimoto to obtain the title of Iron Chef.
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Stephanie Izard was born in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois and grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, where she developed an interest in food from her parents.
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Stephanie Izard earned a degree in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1998 before attending the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Scottsdale, graduating in 1999.
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Stephanie Izard returned to the Chicago area in 2001, with a job as garde manger at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Vong.
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In 2004, at 27, Stephanie Izard opened her first restaurant, Scylla, in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago.
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In March 2011, Stephanie Izard announced that she would be teaming up with the BOKA restaurant group to open a second restaurant, Little Goat.
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Little Goat was an opportunity for Stephanie Izard to expand the Girl and the Goat's burgeoning bread program.
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In February 2015, Stephanie Izard announced the opening of a third restaurant in Chicago's Fulton-Randolph Market District, called Duck Duck Goat.
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In July 2021, Stephanie Izard opened her second Girl and the Goat location in Los Angeles, the first of her restaurants outside Chicago.
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Around the time of Scylla's closing, Stephanie Izard signed on to the Chicago-based fourth season of Bravo's Top Chef, which she ultimately won, becoming the show's first female winner and claiming a $100,000 prize.
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Stephanie Izard appeared on Food Network's Iron Chef America, where she competed against, and ultimately lost to, Iron Chef Michael Symon in a head-to-head bread competition.
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In October 2011, Stephanie Izard published her first cookbook, Girl in the Kitchen.
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In 2016, Stephanie Izard launched This Little Goat, a line of bottled sauces and spice mixes inspired by international cuisines.