Edwin Bellanco, Chef de Cuisine

Chef Edwin Bellanco, like many chefs, first became interested in cooking as a boy watching his Italian Grandmother cook her secret family recipes. His culinary interests grew from cooking at home to working in a local restaurant. The dishes were simply prepared, but the experience was valuable in teaching Chef Bellanco to take pride in a well-made dish that tastes good.

Edwin did not begin cooking seriously until he moved to New York and landed his first real cooking position at Grammercy Tavern. While initially he was in over his head; he soon grasped Chef Tom Coliccio's philosophy that to create the best dishes, you must start with the best ingredients. Chef Coliccio emphasized the freshest and best ingredients speak for themselves. Another great lesson was that no plate leaves kitchen less than perfect.

After moving his way through Gramercy Tavern's kitchen Edwin ended up working as Marco Canora's Sous Chef at La Cucina on Martha's Vineyard. There were only four cooks in the kitchen, creating an opportunity to learn and experiment. La Cucina became very successful in its own right and afforded Edwin the opportunity to meet many celebrities, one of which was President Clinton while catering his birthday party. A summer later, he spent the season working in pastries with Chef Michael Brisson at L'etoille in Martha's Vineyard.

Chef Bellanco then decided to take his knowledge back to Cleveland and work as Executive Sous Chef at Moxie. Moxie was a large operation with a large staff and he realized that learning the cooking side of being a chef was worthless if you don't have the ability to manage people. The opportunity was invaluable, but he felt the need to get back to one of the greatest culinary cities in the world, New York.

Determined to get back on the fast track to fine dining Chef Bellanco landed a cooking position at Chef David Bouley's Danube. Refocused on learning different cooking techniques Bouley offered him the opportunity to use cooking techniques that he had never seen before. Techniques such as: Sous Vide, cooking in hold-o-mats and low temperature cooking . After a short time at Danube, Chef Bellanco was promoted to Sous Chef and eventually was offered the Sous Chef position at the Bouley, working under Chef Bouley.

Many experiences came from working with Bouley and during his second year Chef Bellanco took an opportunity to work at Thomas Keller's French Laundry. This gave him a chance to work with one of the best Chef's certainly in the US and arguably the world. In three months Edwin was able to see first hand how a world class operation ran and for such a short time this was the restaurant that left the biggest impression.

After working in all of these gastronomic kitchens Edwin decided to work at Morrell's Wine Bar and Café, because he feels that it is an unassuming place that can do great food. There are no stars, no ego, just great food and great wine.

Now at The Morrell Wine Bar & Cafe, Bellanco will be preparing a menu that has been specially developed to complement the one-of-a-kind wine list.