Chef Stefano Tedeschi, known best as Chef Steff

Stefano Tedeschi, known best as Chef Steff, started his illustrious career as a chef at the age of sixteen in his father Mario’s pizza shop. After graduating high school, Stefano enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, taking a break from cooking to serve his country. After his tour of duty with the Marines ended, Chef Steff opened his own pizza parlor in 1988 in the north eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. Calling it Stefano’s Pizzeria, it was his first experience running his own restaurant, but it would not be his last. Stefano, knowing full well that he wanted to become a professional chef, began taking trips to Italy in 1990 to train under some of the finest chefs the ‘old country’ had to offer.

Over the next several years during his bi annual trips to Italy, the ‘Chef Steff’ we know today was born. Chef Steff, wanting to become a household name, founded an importing company, Stefano: a Taste of Italy in 1992 using contacts he had developed on numerous trips to Italy over the past several years. Chef Steff began importing olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and other patently Italian gourmet products. He also began making sauce, in the authentic Italian style, jarring and selling it through his olive oil company under the brand Steff Gourmet. The sauce was a huge success! Using his olive oil company and the media exposure it brought him as a spring board, Chef Steff opened his first full service restaurant – Stefano’s Ristorante, in the Fox Chapel Plaza during March of 1999.

At this point, Chef Steff was becoming a media darling, wowing people with his amazing food and over the top personality. In 2002, he made his national TV debut on The Food Network show, Food Finds, with legendary director Frances Ford Copolla and his winery from Sonoma Valley California.

Continuing his culinary successes, Chef Steff was named the American delegate of the L’Orde International des Disciples d’Auguste Escoffier, a prestigious international organization based in Nice, France. The Disciples of Auguste Escoffier was founded in the 20th century in honor of the legendary French chef, Georges Auguste Escoffier and is dedicated to recognizing and promoting culinary excellence. Chef Steff was humbled to be the first American ever to be inducted into this prestigious society.

In 2003, continuing his rise to television stardom, Chef Steff began production of Food and Football with Chef Steff, his very own television series. For the show, Chef Steff combined his two true loves, food and professional sports. For each show, he would interview players on how food affected their lives, what foods they enjoyed, and where they liked to eat – other than Stefano’s, of course. Continuing his sports and food theme, Chef Steff appeared on Fox’s The Best Damn Sports Show Period, in 2004 as a regular guest chef.

In 2005, Chef Steff moved on to his most ambitious project to date, building his new restaurant at the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, the hot new entertainment complex located north east of Pittsburgh. To top off this new project, while his new restaurant was still in the construction phase, Chef Steff opened his most hyped, yet most short-lived restaurant in Detroit, MI. Chef Steff’s Detroit at Pittsburgh restaurant, brought to Detroit for Super Bowl XL, was a smash hit with the Steeler nation that traveled to Detroit to watch the Steelers crush the Seattle Seahawks. Chef Steff said, when asked by one of the many reporters to come to his restaurant in Detroit, that he came to Detroit for the Steelers; many of whom he knows from his Food and Football show, his previous restaurants, and the many charity functions he participates in, in the city of Pittsburgh.