Rich Vellante, Executive Chef and Executive VP of Restaurants

Rich joined Legal Sea Foods as a chef in our restaurants 14 years ago and now oversees all restaurant and culinary operations.  As Executive Chef, he manages the development of new recipes and menus and oversees their execution in our kitchens. 
 
A graduate of Hamilton College, he studied at the French Culinary Institute in New York City before spending two years in Italy, cooking his way through several provinces using traditional, farm-fresh ingredients and seafood.  He is also the former chef-owner of a three-star restaurant in Massachusetts.
 
Rich earned a Chef 2000 award, was voted “Menu Strategist of the Year” by Restaurant Business and was included among the nation’s Top 50 R&D Chefs by Nation’s Restaurant News.  He twice designed dinners for the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs; he was the first civilian chef in US history to cook for the nation’s Senators (2002 and 2004) and he has repeated as guest chef at the prestigious James Beard House and Culinary Foundation in New York City.

He also recently attended the executive education program at Harvard Business School.