Marcel Vigneron
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Marcel Vigneron | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Education | Culinary Institute of America |
| Culinary career | |
| Cooking style | California |
Current restaurant(s)
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Television show(s)
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Marcel Vigneron is an American chef. He was the winner of the first season of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing in 2024, and he was the runner-up of the second season of Top Chef, which aired in 2006–2007. From 2011 on, he has made multiple other television appearances and has opened several hotels and restaurants in the Los Angeles area, such as The Bazaar at SLS Beverly Hills, Wolf, The Chateau Marmont, The Beverly Hilton, and Lemon Grove at The Aster. He is now[when?] the CEO & Executive Chef of his own event and production company, Modern California Cuisine.
Vigneron is originally from Wichita, Kansas but moved to Los Angeles with his family at a young age and went to elementary school in Burbank, California. His family moved to Washington state in 1994 and he attended high school on Bainbridge Island.
Vigneron later went on to study at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York and achieved his associate degree in Culinary Arts as well as a bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management. There, Vigneron met fellow chef Spike Mendelsohn. The two played a lot of frisbee together and became best friends;[1] they would later compete together on the 5th and 8th seasons of The Next Iron Chef.[2] At the CIA, Vigneron enrolled in the teaching assistant program, where he served as the sous chef to Dwayne Lipuma at the school's Ristorante Caterina de’ Medici.[3]
Top Chef
Vigneron appeared in season two of Bravo's reality series Top Chef, which was filmed in 2006, and aired in late 2006 and early 2007. At the time of his appearance on Top Chef, he was a Master Cook at Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On the show, he became known for his molecular gastronomy techniques, especially his use of foams.[4] He was assaulted on the show in an incident in which several of the show's contestants egged on contestant Cliff Crooks to pin down Vigneron while they all tried to shave his head. This led to Cliff being kicked off the show.
Several Top Chef viewers blogged about discrepancies in the sequence of events relating to the hair-shaving incident, including one clip that shows contestant Elia Aboumrad during the shave attempt with all of her hair intact, despite being shown shaving her head earlier in the sequence.[5] Activity in the blogosphere eventually attracted the attention of entertainment news outlets, some of which commented that the creative editing was done in an attempt to downplay interpersonal conflicts.[5] Vigneron characterized the event as more like a drunken assault,[6] and confirmed that the attack on him came before the other contestants shaved their heads, contrary to how the footage was edited.[7]
Vigneron made it to the finals, finishing as runner-up behind the winner Ilan Hall.