Bill Telepan Never Stops Smiling

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Born and raised in New Jersey, Bill Telepan grew up in a family where they shared hearty meals sometimes made with vegetables from their garden. Upon graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Bill schooled at some of the world’s top kitchens. He apprenticed with the legendary Alain Chapel at his Three Michelin Star restaurant outside Lyons in France. Under Chapel, he honed his culinary skills, and learned the importance of retaining the integrity of fresh ingredients.

On his return to New York in the early 90′s, Bill worked with Daniel Boulud at Le Cirque and Gilbert Le Coze at Le Bernardin. Subsequently, he was hired by Alfred Portale at Gotham Bar & Grill, where he was Executive Sous Chef for four years. He moved on to become the Executive Chef at Ansonia. In 1998 Telepan joined JUdson Grill, earning Three Stars from The New York Times. He remained at JUdson until 2004. That same year in November, his cookbook, Inspired by Ingredients was published by Simon & Schuster.

Since 2008, he has been the Executive Chef of Wellness in the Schools (WITS), a non-profit organization dedicated to making school food healthy. As the first chef to join the WITS team, Bill has served as a leader of the WITS Cook for Kids program by developing nutritious school menus, training cafeteria workers and teaching culinary and nutrition concepts to students, parents and teachers. In 2009, Bill was honored with a selection to First Lady Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to School task force and preliminary conferences.