Chef Odette Fada is a lecturing instructor of Culinary Arts at CIA. She teaches the Cuisines of Mediterranean course and Back of House Restaurant Operations in Ristorante Caterina de’ Medici, one of the award-winning, student-run teaching restaurants on CIA’s New York campus. She integrates her extensive experience in Italian cookery into her teachings.
Growing up in Italy, Fada always knew she wanted to be a chef. As a child, she made pasta and risotto with vegetables from the garden for her five siblings. After graduating from the prestigious culinary school, the Instituto Professionale Alberghiero at Iseo Lake in Lombardy, she opened a trattoria with her brother before working at some of Italy’s best restaurants: Ristorante Castello Malvezzi in Brescia, Ristorante Vissani in Baschi, and Convivio Vissani in Rome.
As chef de cuisine at Convivio Vissani, she met the late Italian restaurateur Mauro Vincenti, whose Rex Il Ristorante in Los Angeles was one of the most famous and innovative Italian restaurants in America. She came to California and worked for him for the next five years, earning Rex accolades with her refined regional cooking. She was awarded the Los Angeles Times’ highest rating and cooked for Oscar® parties and the Grammy® Awards.
In 1996, she joined Tony May at the most famous Italian restaurant in New York City, San Domenico NY, as executive chef and garnered culinary acclaim. She was named one of the best Italian Chefs by Wine Spectator and won the White Truffle Competition in 1998. She was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2001 for Best Chef: New York City. When San Domenico NY closed in June 2008, she went on to run the culinary operations for San Domenico Events, a full-service catering company.
In September 2009, she returned as executive chef to SD26, on Madison Square Park, then from 2010 to 2016, she worked as consulting chef for two of the major Italian pasta companies and for restaurants in New York City.
In 2016, she was appointed house chef at Castello di Ugento and director of the Puglia Culinary Center in Italy. Over the next four years, she taught Italian regional cuisine, contributing to the Center’s reputation as a hub for culinary excellence.
In 2022, Fada joined CIA, where she took charge of the kitchen at Ristorante Caterina de’ Medici, the institute’s Italian restaurant. Since then, she has served as a lecturing instructor at CIA’s Hyde Park, NY campus, specializing in Italian and Mediterranean cuisines.