A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Celebrity Chef speaker Eli Kirshtein is an executive chef, television personality, and self-titled Gastronome. Since his culinary career began at the age of 16, Chef Kirshtein has cooked for some of the most notable chefs in the country, including his first position as cook at Buckhead Diner for Celebrity Chef Kevin Rathbun in Atlanta. From there, he moved on to work for Top Chef Richard Blais at Fishbone restaurant before enrolling at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York.

Celebrity Chef speaker Eli Kirshtein is probably most known for his appearances on the hit television series, Top Chef on Bravo. Chef Eli was a competitor on season six of the series, where he competed against other distinguished contestants including Top Chef Winner, Michael Voltaggio along with Chefs Bryan Voltaggio, Kevin Gillespie, Jennifer Caroll, and Mike Isabella. Chef Kirshtein narrowly missed making it to the final round with just two episodes left in the season. Eli was eliminated by Top Chef Judges Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and Toby Young, along with guest judges who included master chefs Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Alessandro Stratta, Gavin Kaysen and Timothy Hollingsworth.

Since the show aired in 2009, Chef Eli Kirshtein has been the Executive Chef at ENO Restaurant and Wine Bar in Atlanta. He has also served as sous chef to famous Top Chef Richard Blais on the extremely popular Food Network cooking show, Iron Chef America. In the episode called “Battle Chickpea”, Chef Kirshtein and Chef Blais went up against Iron Chef Mario Batali. Although they were defeated, Chef Eli continues to strive for culinary success in all that he does.