“My mouth has definitely gotten me into trouble my whole life. I’m a New Jersey Italian who comes from a broken family, and I had to fight my whole life to get where I am.”
—Mike Isabella, from a 2011 interview in the Chicago Tribune after his second-place finish on Top Chef Masters
Chef Mike Isabella was named Food & Wine’s “The People’s Best New Chef Mid-Atlantic” in 2012, but he is probably much better known for his appearances on Bravo’s Top Chef. He was first on the show during Season Six in 2009, where he finished sixth, and was also on Season Eight (the All-Stars edition), where he finished second. Yet, long before his TV notoriety, Mike spent years working with some of the most respected chefs in the country. Born and raised in New Jersey, he started his formal training at the Restaurant School in New York City, taking classes while working in restaurants around the city. One of his first jobs in the city was working for fellow Eat Ink chef Ed Witt (see entry in this part) as a line cook at the now-closed Nicole’s on the Upper East Side. Mike eventually moved to Philadelphia to work with Starr Restaurants, which now operates twenty-three restaurants across Philadelphia, New York, Atlantic City, and Washington, D.C. Mike worked at a number of Starr restaurants, and it was there that he saw what it took to run a multilocation restaurant group. His first position was as a sous-chef for James Beard Award–winner Douglas Rodriguez at the modern Latin restaurant Alma de Cuba. His time at Alma de Cuba and the time he later spent working for Iron Chef Jose Garces at his modern Mexican restaurant El Vez was when Mike learned true Latin cuisine. This eventually led him to the position of executive sous-chef on the opening team of Top Chef Master Marcus Samuelsson’s Washington Square restaurant. There, Mike saw what it takes to open a fine-dining restaurant from the beginning.
Continuing to seek out his culinary passion, Mike left Philadelphia in 2005 and moved to Atlanta, GA, to work as the chef de cuisine of the seafood-inspired Kyma, one of the top Greek restaurants in the country. While working at Kyma and after traveling to Greece, the Mediterranean, and parts of the Middle East, Mike developed his love and understanding of Greek cuisine. In the spring of 2007, he continued his Greek focus by moving to Washington, D.C., to work as executive chef of José Andrés’s Zaytinya, a Greek/Mediterranean tapas restaurant. During Mike’s three years at Zaytinya, the restaurant was consistently ranked as Washingtonian magazine’s “100 Very Best Restaurants,” and Mike was named as a “Rising Culinary Star of the Year” nominee by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington in both 2009 and 2010. During this time, Mike was urged by José Andrés to try out for Top Chef.
Eventually, Mike decided that he wanted to get back to his Italian-American heritage from his days growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey. He says, “I wanted to go back to my roots and get away from Greek for a little while.” To fulfill this dream, Mike opened Graffiato, an Italian-inspired restaurant in D.C.’s Chinatown, in June 2011. In May of 2012, Mike opened Bandolero, a modern Mexican-style restaurant serving mostly small plates, in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. In 2012, Mike released his first cookbook, Crazy Good Italian.
Mike’s tattoos are almost all tied to his culinary endeavors. He tattooed an evil eye on his right hand to protect him from evil spirits before going on Top Chef Season Six, and he has a “badass pizza cutter” across his right forearm, next to his star tattoo, to commemorate the opening of Graffiato. Mike’s Hawaiian-themed tattoos on his left leg in a way are responsible for how he happened to open Bandolero. After being tattooed at Jinx Proof Tattoo in Georgetown, Mike ran into restaurateur Jonathan Umbel, who ran the recently closed Hook. After looking over the space that once housed Hook that day, they would eventually partner on Bandolero in the same spot. Mike’s left upper arm is now tattooed with a Day of the Dead–style bandolero, the namesake for the restaurant in Georgetown.
Today, Mike continues to get tattooed and continues to open restaurants. In the spring of 2013, he opened G, an Italian deli and sandwich shop, in Edison, NJ. However, Mike is most excited about his return to Greek food with his new restaurant, Kapnos.
