Todd English is the chef-owner of Olives and the three branches of Figs, all award-winning restaurants located in Boston. Todd graduated from the Culinary Institute of America with honors; he has cooked with Jean-Jacques Rachou at La Côte Basque and was executive chef at Michela's, an award-winning Northern Italian restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1994, Todd was named Best Chef in the Northeast by the James Beard Foundation after having been named National Rising Star in 1991; he is also the recipient of the first Robert Mondavi Award for Culinary Excellence. He has taught cooking classes in the United States and abroad and has been featured in Bon Appétit, The New York Times, Food & Wine, The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, and other periodicals too numerous to mention. He lives with his family in Boston.