Dominick Maietta

Born in the Bronx, Chef Dominick Maietta formed a love for cooking and baking pastries at an early age – watching, helping and learning from his grandmothers. Following WWII, Chef Maietta’s grandfather opened and operated Hungarian Village restaurant in NYC’s Upper East Side neighborhood, where he and his wife cooked small portions that we've come to know as tapas. This restaurant was an originator of tapes-style eating in NYC during the 1950s – and would prove to be a major culinary inspiration in the chef’s life.

Chef Maietta’s professional kitchen aspirations also stemmed from numerous family members on his father’s side mastering the Italian culinary arts, working as chefs and running Italian restaurants all along the United States’ Northeast region. Dominick enrolled in ICE’s Culinary Arts Program in 2003. Maietta began his professional career in 2006, interning at San Domenico on Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Passionate about Spanish food, Maietta interviewed with highly acclaimed Spanish native, Chef Luis Bollo of Ibiza Restaurant, and was hired onto the team. From there, he spent 3 more years as Sous Chef at Meigas, also a Bollo restaurant.

In the winter of 2010, Maietta was hired to open Chef Bollo’s Salinas Restaurant in Manhattan, which received two stars by The New York Times, and in 2011, was named Esquire Magazine’s “Best New Restaurant of the Year”. Maietta relocated to San Francisco in late 2014 to join Michael Chiarello’s team at Coqueta where he remains today as chef de cuisine. During his time with the critically acclaimed Spanish restaurant they have been a mainstay on the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list.