Mark Tafoya's ReMARKable Palate Brings Food Home

Mark C. Tafoya, 35, Personal Chef BA in Theatre Studies/French Literature, Yale University

Mark Tafoya has traveled a very unique path to arrive at his profession as a personal chef. He started out as an actor working on stage with legends like George C. Scott and Tony Randall, but soon discovered that his passion for food had a stronger magnetic pull on his creativity. Though he never wanted to open a restaurant, he started preparing meals at a friend’s summer home, and upon seeing an ad for personal chefs, he realized “Hey, I’m already doing this!” He’s now the owner of the ReMARKable Palate Personal Chef Service in New York City, and the president of the New York chapter of the U.S. Personal Chef Association, which recently honored him with their Marketer of the Year Award for 2006.

Mark is now combining his love for food and performance with an expanding career in new media, where he co-owns The Gilded Fork, LLC with his business partner Jennifer Iannolo. Together they are bringing a new voice to the world of food with their online magazine, the Gilded Fork, and earlier this year they launched the world’s first all-food podcast channel, the Culinary Podcast Network.

As a world traveler and self-taught gourmand, Mark brings a unique perspective to the pursuit of culinary adventure, particularly with his love of micro-regional cuisines. For him, the essence of what food brings to our existence as human beings is an important one. “One of the best ways we can learn to understand, and indeed celebrate each other, is through cuisine,” he says. “Something as seemingly small as our approach to food can transform the world in ways both small and vast.” As a personal chef he brings that ideal into the homes of his clients, and as a chef and food writer he shares it with the world.

Mark’s talents are quickly putting him on the road toward food stardom, and in just the past year he has been recognized by the New York Times, Time Out New York and Bon Appétit magazine, which named him one of the most compelling food podcasters for his ReMARKable Palate Podcast, which was one of the first on iTunes.

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