Chris Bianco

Chris Bianco is an American James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur in Phoenix, Arizona. He operates restaurants in Arizona and California.

Early life Bianco was born in the Bronx in 1960, and grew up in Ossining, New York. He had asthma as a child, forcing him to stay inside, where he watched his aunt cook.

Culinary career Bianco began making mozzarella in his apartment and selling it to Italian restaurants. The reason was years of exposure to airborne flour and smoke from making pizza, which caused him to pivot away from pizza-only restaurants and toward pasta.

Awards Bianco's first James Beard Award nomination was in 2000, and he won the James Beard Award in 2003, when he was the first pizzaiolo to be named Best Chef Southwest.

In 2022, Bianco was named Outstanding Restaurateur by the James Beard Foundation, the industry’s highest award.