Rising Star Chef Daniel Holzman of The Meatball Shop - Biography

Daniel Holzman didn’t start his culinary career washing dishes at a local watering hole. The 15 year old was working after school at Le Bernardin. And it was Chef Eric Ripert who encouraged Holzman to attend the Culinary Institute of America (which he did, with a full scholarship from the James Beard Foundation).

A natural talent, Holzman accepted a position at Paladin in New York City, working under its eponymous chef before moving to Vegas to fill a vacancy at Paladin’s flagship restaurant, Napa. So began a 10-year journey through some of Los Angeles and San Francisco’s finest restaurants, including Campton Place, The Fifth Floor, Aqua, and Jardinière.

In 2004, Holzman took a chef-management job at California organic bistro, Axe, followed by an executive chef position at the Inn of the Seventh Ray. Holzman left in 2007 to open rustic Roman SPQR. Now co-owner and executive chef of New York’s The Meatball Shop (as well as ice cream novelty company KB treats LLC), Holzman fuses upper-tier culinary experience with management savvy and seemingly endless ambition to please. In 2013, Holzman was named 2013 StarChefs.com Community Rising Star.