Meet Chef Paul Bartolotta

Four- time nominated and two-time James Beard award-winning Chef Paul Bartolotta is the co-founder and owner of The Bartolotta Restaurants, a nationally recognized restaurant and catering organization co-founded with his brother, Joe Bartolotta. The organization has grown to become the premier culinary brand in the Greater Milwaukee region, offering first class service and cuisine across a portfolio of 17 one-of-a-kind restaurants and catering facilities. An internationally celebrated chef and restaurateur, Chef Bartolotta has shared his culinary talent in kitchens around the globe – from Paris to New York to Las Vegas – for more than 30 years, and has been instrumental in shaping Milwaukee’s culinary scene since The Bartolotta Restaurants launched its first concept, Ristorante Bartolotta dal 1993.

Chef Bartolotta graduated from the Restaurant and Hotel Management Program at Milwaukee Area Technical College in 1980, and began his professional training in New York with famed restaurateur Tony May. With May’s support, Chef Bartolotta traveled to Italy and France, and trained in some of the countries’ most prestigious restaurants. In 1994, Chef Bartolotta received the James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest for his work at Chicago’s Spiaggia; and in 2009 he won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest for Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas.