Co-Founder and Owner, The Bartolotta Restaurants; Milwaukee, WI

Paul Bartolotta is a two-time winner and six-time James Beard Award nominee as the co-founder and owner of The Bartolotta Restaurants, a nationally recognized premier restaurant and catering organization, celebrating over thirty years of business in the Greater Milwaukee region. Chef Bartolotta’s culinary skills have earned him numerous accolades from the James Beard Foundation, Michelin Guide, The New York Times, the Distinguished Restaurants of North America (DiRoNA), AAA, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and others. His passion continues to inspire the company that he and his late brother, Joe, launched in 1993. Together, their achievements earned them a nomination by the James Beard Foundation for Outstanding Restaurateur USA three years in a row–2017, 2018, 2019– with Paul honored as a finalist for Outstanding Restaurateur USA in 2020. Chef Bartolotta has worked at fifteen restaurants throughout Italy and has been recognized by the president of Italy as an ambassador of Italian cuisine. In 2022, he served as a panelist at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Conference at the Vatican, focusing on the art and science of olive oil in the areas of nutrition, medicine, and planetary health. He has trained alongside some of France’s most acclaimed chefs, earned three stars from The New York Times at twenty-four years old, and won numerous accolades as executive chef at Spiaggia in Chicago, and his namesake restaurant, Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas. In July 2024, Chef Bartolotta opened his newest venue, The Commodore –A Bartolotta Restaurant, on Nagawicka Lake. (Milwaukee, WI) @bartolottas