Marc Murphy

The son of a diplomat, Marc Murphy spent a cosmopolitan childhood in cities all over the world. Early in his career, he cooked in France and Italy. In New York City, he learned under chefs Alain Ducasse, Terrance Brennan, Sylvain Portay and David Pasternak. Murphy became the Executive Chef at Cellar in the Sky in 1993 and then headed uptown to be the opening chef at La Fourchette on the Upper East Side. He opened his first restaurant, Landmarc — the first of his Benchmarc restaurants — in Tribeca in February 2004, and later in the Time Warner Center in 2007. In 2006, he opened Ditch Plains, a casual fish shack eatery, in the West Village. Murphy is well known to fans of the Food Network’s "Chopped" where he appears as a judge.

Currently, Murphy oversees several concepts in New York including The Mainstay by Marc Murphy, which serves up comfort classics via the Wonder app, Porchetta Sandwich Shop at Citi Field and the MM Kitchen Studio event space.

“ICE helped lay the foundations of my education as a chef," he says. "It was there that I learned the basics, and those lessons have stayed with me throughout my entire career, from Paris to Monte Carlo to New York City. My chef-instructors at ICE not only taught me invaluable lessons about food and its preparation, but they also trusted me to build on that education through my own life experiences.”

His advice for students? “You really have to try different techniques and learn from different chefs. That’s the only way you’ll find your footing in the culinary world and know exactly what kind of chef you want to be.”