Award-winning chef Vincent Tropepe is a celebrated culinary personality, cookbook author, speaker, restaurant consultant, small business advocate and mental health advocate. Born and raised in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, Vincent is a culinary school graduate of the Art Institute of New York and the New York Restaurant School. As a child, Vincent always gravitated to food and cooking. His early influences include his mother, both grandmothers and his older cousin, Phyllis. He preferred spending time in the kitchen to playing sports or watching television. Prior to his formal culinary education and longing to be in the food industry, Vincent got job-shucking clams and oysters at Casa Calamari, a then-famous Brooklyn hot spot, followed by a stint at family owned Mama Tury’s. After his graduation, where he received top honors in the culinary arts from the State of New York, Vincent’s first professional job was at Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, working directly under Chef Ducasse. After mastering the art of poaching pears, (a revered dessert item on the Alain Ducasse menu), Vincent continued to work in a variety of top restaurants, expanding his knowledge of various ethnic cuisines and furthering his understanding of how to expertly use ingredients. Vincent has worked at The Rainbow Room, SD26 with Tony May, The 21 Club, and famed Chinese restaurant Mr. K’s. While making a name for himself within these acclaimed kitchens in New York, in 2002 he was asked to be the consulting chef at Madre’s of Pasadena, California (the first restaurant owned by actress/singer Jennifer Lopez). Years later, Vincent would go on to consult Tony May at SD26. Throughout his years in the kitchen, Chef Tropepe has cooked for many celebrities including Luciano Pavarotti, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Yankee Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, Regis Philbin, Michael Jackson, Joan Rivers, Robin Williams, and four United States Presidents: George W. Bush and Barack Obama, both while in office, and Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton post-presidency. Most interestingly, Vincent has cooked aboard Air Force One a total of 14 times for Presidential domestic flights. Vincent penned “In My Whites: A Matter of Culinary Perspective” a cookbook and culinary memoir that was released in 2016 by Main Entrée Publishing. Upon the publication of that book, Vincent embarked on a 17-week book tour across the country. Throughout his culinary career, Vincent has raised over $6 million for various charities through charitable dinners, appearances and speaking engagements. He continues to raise money for organizations that he believes in. Chef Tropepe also has much experience in the non profit space especially in the areas od development, expansion, branding and event organizing. In August of 2020, Chef Tropepe was appointed Senior Food Writer and Editor in Chief to the food authority website CulinaryNewsWorld.com. In this position, Tropepe has published delicious user friendly recipes covering a wide variety of cuisines and baking styles, food and product reviews, restaurant reviews and among the most favorite from him investigative food related stories. From the start of his position, Tropepe has boosted readership more then 400% and totaling more thAn 5 million reads from his first published article in 2020. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Chef Tropepe used his time wisely and dedicated much time to writing. His second work titled, SLAUGHTERED: How Inconsistent Lockdowns Collapsed the Hospitality Industry During COVID-19 is currently the only work totally dedicated to the hospitality industry and how COVID-19 and how questionable leadership making the decisions led to the collapse of the hospitality industry. Receiving numerous publishing offers, Team Tropepe elected to go with the publisher of his first work and in April 2021 SLAUGHTERED was published and became a Barnes and Noble exclusive online retailer for the book. Since his great success with SLAUGHTERED additional works of his have been published including Roasted, Chopped & Beaten: When Cities Declare War On The Restaurants That Feed Them;ROOTS: Unlocking The Potential & Discovering The Delicious In All Natural Ingredients;The Other Five Senses: Understanding The Art of Hospitality and The Guilty Pleasure Cookbook: Developing A Delicious and Disciplined Relationship With Guilty Pleasure Foods One Recipe At A Time. Future publications releases are The Falsified Feast: Uncovering The Countries Committing Food Fraud;Every Kick Is a Boost: My Life In Essays From A Brooklyn Boy To Top Chef;Nonna’s Notebook: Celebrating the Culinary Legacy & Italian Hospitality Of My Two Nonnas and Diary of a Hungry Chef: EATING SÃO PAULO. At the end of 2025, Tropepe started to work on the national blueprint for a hospitality non profit called The Hospitality Mental Wellness Initiative USA, that will aggressively focus on the mental health crisis in the hospitality industry. The industry plagued with additiction, depression and suicide to name a few, Tropepe is starting a much needed long over due national conversation and movement to address these issues and have resources available to the people who need them the most and when they need them. In January 2026, the HMWIUSA successfully launched and received one 400,000 website visits and has gained a track record in assisting those seeking assistance with mental health and addiction issues. In June of 2026, Tropepe started conversation about passing legislation for hospitality employees to obtain much needed mental health benefits on a Federal level Always wishing to motivate and inspire his customers, and wanting to spread the word of inclusion, Vincent Tropepe firmly believes that through food, art, and community, we can create a much kinder environment for all people.