Chef Ed Cotton's earliest childhood memories involve sitting on the kitchen counter in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the restaurant where his father was the executive chef. Seeing the energy of a thriving kitchen made Cotton realize that he wanted to be a chef.
Long before making his way to New York City, Cotton worked in local restaurants in his hometown of Waltham, MA. In high school he got his first opportunity to work with Chef Todd English practicing and perfecting his knife and pastry skills at Olives and then helping to open Figs in Wellesley, MA.
After four years, Cotton attended the Culinary Institute of America and became a second-generation graduate, following in his father's footsteps. He was rewarded several awards in national cooking competitions during his schooling. For his externship, he continued to work for Olives in Boston, nurturing close ties with the Olives Group. He proved himself talented, reliable and driven and received an offer to open the Olives Restaurant in the Bellagio Las Vegas. He accepted without looking back and earned the title of Sous Chef.
After his one year tenure in Las Vegas, Cotton moved back to Boston looking to establish connections in the east coast restaurant scene. Not long after settling back in Boston he was introduced to Chef Barbara Lynch and her newly opened and award-winning restaurant No. 9 Park located in Beacon Hill. While Cotton was Executive Sous Chef, Chef Barbara Lynch was awarded the "James Beard Award for Best Chef Northeast" in 2003. After several successful years at No. 9, Cotton was ready to test his skills in New York City.
Due to Cotton's talents and experience, he received an opportunity to work under Chef Daniel Boulud at the highly regarded db Bistro Moderne and Restaurant Daniel in 2003. He honed his skills for over five successful years working as Executive Sous Chef. He was an integral part of the concept stage of Bar Boulud in Manhattan as well as the opening of db Brasserie at Wynn Las Vegas. After many successful years working for Chef Daniel Boulud he took the executive chef position at Veritas in the Flatiron District working closely with its wine director on executing a menu that was perfectly paired with its world renown wine list from the cellar of Park B. Smith, later Cotton joined Chef Laurent Tourondel at BLT Market located in the Ritz Carlton Central Park as Chef de Cuisine, a position he held for nearly two years before taking the helm at Plein Sud at the Smyth Hotel. During his time at Plein Sud Ed headed down to the nation's capital of Washington, DC to compete on Bravo's Emmy Award Winning Top Chef to film Season 7. Cotton cut his way thru the intense competition beating out many other talented chefs from the all over the country and advancing to clench a spot in the final four that took place in Singapore. In Singapore he embraced flavors, cuisine and culture of the country and plowed through his challengers and won every challenge that was put in front of him. He unfortunately finally got out cooked and missed obtaining the title of "Top Chef" landing him as runner up. Along with his TV appearance on Bravo's Top Chef Cotton made his very first TV debut working alongside Iron Chef Cat Cora on the TV Food Networks "Iron Chef America" as her trusty red faced fierce sous chef for over the past 6 seasons. Cotton currently lives in NYC with his girlfriend Diana and their dog Mr. Simon. In the very near future Cotton hopes to be running one of the best restaurants / kitchens in NYC if not the country due to his vast training, experience and knowledge along with his passion for food, art and science.
