Debra Ponzek is an American chef, who won the

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

for Rising Star Chef in 1992 beating her then-husband

Bobby Flay Robert William Flay (born December 10, 1964), is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and reality television personality. Flay is the owner and executive chef of several restaurants and franchises, including Bobby's Burger Palace, Bobby's ...

. She is now the owner of Aux Délices restaurants in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

Career

Debra Ponzek was born and brought up in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

. She studied engineering at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, but dropped out and decided to pursue a career in cooking and attended

The Culinary Institute of America The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a private culinary school with its primary campus in Hyde Park, New York, and branch campuses in St. Helena and Napa, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Singapore. The college, which was the firs ...

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Frankl ...

where she graduated in 1984. She would later return to the Institute to give the commencement address to the students in 2015. As part of an

externship Externships are experiential learning opportunities, similar to internships, provided by partnerships between educational institutions and employers to give students practical experiences in their field of study. In medicine, it may refer to a visi ...

, she worked in

Chatham, New Jersey "The Chathams" is a term used in reference to shared services for two neighboring municipalities in Morris County, New Jersey, United States – Chatham Borough and Chatham Township. The two are separate municipalities. The first, a town that w ...

, at the Tarragon Tree restaurant and at Toto Steakhouse in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

. Following graduation, she began working under Drew Nieporent at his restaurant

Montrachet ''For the restaurant, see Montrachet (restaurant)'' Montrachet (pronounced ''Mon-rashay''; ) is an ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) and Grand Cru vineyard for white wine made of Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune subregion of Burgundy. ...

as a

sous chef A sous-chef is a chef who is second in command in a kitchen; the person ranking next after the head chef, usually the more hands on manager with regards to training staff and organising the kitchen. Duties and functions The sous-chef has many re ...

. Nieporent was an advertising executive who had spotted her when she worked at Toto Steakhouse. She went on to become

executive chef A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant or hotel. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is ...

at Montrachet for seven years, during which time the restaurant was praised by the food critics of New York City. While there she won the 1992

for Rising Star Chef. She appeared on the '' Great Chefs - Great Cities'' television series, preparing three dishes. Ponzek departed Montrachet in 1994, and opened her own restaurant, Aux Délices in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

. She has since expanded this to multiple sites, and runs cooking classes out of her central kitchen for the restaurants.

Personal life

Ponzek married fellow chef

in May 1991. They had met the previous June and decided to get married within a matter of weeks. They were both nominated for the 1992 James Beard Foundation Award for Rising Star Chef, and Flay attempted to withdraw from the category when he learned he was nominated alongside his wife. The Foundation refused, but when he won the following year, Ponzek presented him with his award. She later divorced Flay and married Greg Addonizio, moving to Connecticut. When they opened Aux Délices together, Ponzek was pregnant with their first child; they have since had two more.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ponzek, Debra Living people People from Morristown, New Jersey American women chefs Culinary Institute of America alumni James Beard Foundation Award winners Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women Boston University College of Engineering alumni