Chef Sam Hazen
Having spent the past 3 years winning over the hearts of critics, New Yorkers and diners from around the world, TAO Executive Chef Sam Hazen has helped create one of the biggest culinary successes in the country. Serving over 800 dinners each night, seven days a week, Hazen created a true Asian infused menu, featuring specialties from China, Japan and Thailand.
Chef Hazen has traveled the globe to learn first-hand the artistry involved in cooking and preparing Asian inspired dishes keeping true to time-tested traditions.
Hazen graduated from the CIA, where he learned secrets of a most delectable variety. After spending time in Manhattan in the kitchens of La Côte Basque, Quilted Giraffe, and Quartorze, Hazen headed to London and earned the position of chef de partie at the Michelin three-star Le Gavroche; he also spent time in the kitchen of Raymond Blanc. In Milan, he worked at Gualtiero Marchesi, and then returned to the United States to serve as executive chef at Terrace in the Sky, where he earned a three-star review from The New York Times.
Hazen's desire to teach brought him back to the CIA as a chef/instructor. But he wasn't content to relax in Hyde Park and rest on his laurels. To enhance his teaching, Hazen gathered intelligence on behalf of his students from weeklong stints at spots like Le Cirque and Aureole. He returned to the kitchen full-time at the well-reviewed Cascabel and Tavern On The Green, before embarking on his own enterprises with the exuberant Rue 57 and trendy pan-Asian Tao.
Such extensive and worldly experience has served Hazen well. In his Travel, Restaurant & Wine Report, J. Walman called Hazen a "paragon of versatility." And his cooking might even inspire a transporting experience - a taste of fish soup made New York magazine's Hal Rubenstein "recall some swoon-filled memory of a seaside tavern near Cap d' Antibes." Detour Magazine writer Kristen Wolfe asserted that "Tao will wow the un-wowable."
