Mike Marcelli began his culinary journey at a very young age.
Born in Portland Maine, he learned how to break down a lobster, dunk a steamed belly
clam in butter and pick wild strawberries on his uncle Luigi's farm.
Moving to the New York area at the age of 5, he crawled
around the walk-in of Larry Forgione's An American Place, looking at buffalo ribs,
farmstead cheese and local foie gras.
Moving below the Mason-Dixon Line at the age of 9, found
Mike standing on a milk crate cleaning soft shell crabs in his Dad's restaurant
in Virginia. Mike was a natural, deftly, cutting the face off and ripping the
lungs out.
As a teenager, he swore off his culinary inclinations and
immersed himself in a good Jesuit education. After 3 years of philosophy, he
finally realized that "a man has to do, what a man has to do" and told his
parents that he wanted to become a chef and go to culinary school. Horrified
and wondering where they had gone wrong, he forsook 3 years of college credits
and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America.
He did his externship at Oceana Restaurant in Manhattan,
working under Food and Wine Magazine Best New Chef, Cornelius Gallagher and
then Sous Chef Christopher Lee. After graduation, he was asked to permanently
join the staff of Oceana, where he worked through all of the kitchen stations. During this time he was also fortunate to have
the chance to work with Chef Daniel Boulud and Chef David Bouley.
Fine dining was exciting, but he wanted something more
rustic and straightforward, landing a position with Chef Riccardo Buitoni of Aurora
Ristorante in Brooklyn. Mikes Italian genes began to expand and after a year,
he was headed to Anversa degli Abruzzi, the village of his ancestors in Abruzzo, Italy to work at his
uncles Agriturismo.