Debra Ponzek

Debra Ponzek is an American chef, who won the James Beard Foundation Award for Rising Star Chef in 1992 beating her then-husband Bobby Flay. She is now the owner of Aux Délices restaurants in Connecticut.

Career Debra Ponzek was born and brought up in Morristown, New Jersey. She studied engineering at Boston University, but dropped out and decided to pursue a career in cooking and attended The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York where she graduated in 1984. As part of an externship, she worked in Chatham, New Jersey, at the Tarragon Tree restaurant and at Toto Steakhouse in Summit, New Jersey. She appeared on the Great Chefs - Great Cities television series, preparing three dishes. 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.