Celebrity Chef Ed Cotton comes from a history of culinary artistry in his family. Following in his father’s culinary footsteps, Chef Cotton landed a job apprenticing under acclaimed Chef Todd English during his high school years at English’s restaurant Olives in Boston. Cotton took full advantage of his time with Chef Todd and was able to hone his knife and pastry skills. From there, Cotton went on to receive his cookery education from the Culinary Institute of America.

Immediately after school, Chef Cotton went to work for Chef Todd English again to open Olives at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. A year later, Cotton returned to Boston to become the Executive Sous Chef for renowned Chef Barbara Lynch at the multi-award winning restaurant No. 9 Park in Beacon Hill.

Chef Cotton then moved to New York to work with master chef Daniel Boulud his restaurants Daniel and db Bistro Moderne. Chef Ed continued to work with Boulud for more than five years as his right hand man, traveling all over and opening restaurants across the United States.

In 2007, Chef Ed Cotton made his television debut as Sous Chef to Iron Chef Cat Cora on Food Network’s Iron Chef America. Cotton was asked back several times by Cora to serve as her sous chef. Ed’s career as a TV personality really kicked off in 2010 when he competed on season 7 of Bravo’s hit cooking competition series, Top Chef. Chef Ed competed against sixteen other talented chefs, including Chef Angelo Sosa, Kelly Liken, Tiffany Derry, and Kenny Gilbert. In the final round, Cotton narrowly missed winning the entire competition and finished as runner-up to winner Kevin Sbraga. He may have lost the challenge, but cooking for and receiving positive feedback from celebrity chef judges Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Eric Ripert, and guest judges like Chef Marcus Samuelsson, Jose Andres, and Michelle Bernstein, only gave him more confidence as a culinary professional.

Most recently, Chef Cotton’s projects are working as Executive Chef at Plein Sud at the Smyth Hotel and Chef de Cuisine at BLT Market.