About Bryan Forgione

Bryan Forgione, second son to famed chef Larry Forgione, has been exposed to the cooking world his whole life. As a child, he helped in the kitchen at home with his mother Julie and would help out in his father's Manhattan restaurant, An American Place.

In 1998, Bryan started working full time at An American Place where he learned the skills and knowledge of working in a professional kitchen and cooking three star American cuisine. From that point, Bryan has worked in a number of respectable kitchens fine tuning and expanding his knowledge such as, Above in Times Square, learning Japanese/American fusion, Cooking With Jazz, learning the art of Cajun and Creole food and his father's formerly owned restaurant Beekman Arm's Tavern in upstate Rhinebeck, NY cooking upscale country influenced fare while attending The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. For his externship Bryan worked under Michael Romano at his and Danny Meyer's Union Square Café in Manhattan. Bryan graduated with an associate's degree in February 2003. It was at school where Bryan discovered what would become his true passion with cooking, BBQ.

He learned the basics from school and immediately began teaching himself his new found craft on his days off from work with smokers he built in his backyard. After graduating, Bryan worked with his father again as corporate Executive Sous Chef, opening up six Signature Cafés in Lord & Taylors across the Northeast before taking off to Saint Louis, MO.

As Executive Sous Chef, he and his father opened up An American Place in the downtown area, creating menus in collaboration with the local farmers. It was in St. Louis that Bryan befriended a local pitmaster who went by the name of "Bear" at Smokin Al's BBQ where he learned the tricks of the trade on his 250 gallon oil drum bbq pit. He took that knowledge and went back to New York where the BBQ scene was just starting to flourish and successfully opened up Swingbelly's Beach Side BBQ in Long Beach, Long Island as head Pitmaster/Executive Chef where he received rave reviews from local newspapers such as Newsday and LI Press as well as being named Best LI BBQ by the well respected BBQ blog, Pigtrip.com. Bryan was also featured on Channel 11 News with Liveshot Larry working the pits and teaching Larry the art of smoking St. Louis style ribs.

Branching out with this passion of his, he is a proud member of the Kansas City Barbecue Society where he is a certified BBQ judge and has been on the panel for events such as the Nugget's Best In The West Rib Cook Off in Sparks, NV.

Bryan is currently working in Las Vegas, NV at Steve Wynn's Encore as Executive Sous Chef in Café Society where they were just named Top 20 Best New Restaurants 2009 by Esquire Magazine.