Jeffrey Saad (born c. 1967) is an American chef, author, restaurant owner, television personality, and real estate broker from

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He is currently the host of '' United Tastes of America'' on the

Cooking Channel Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by and spin-off of Food Network. Both are owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media ...

and Estate Director wit
Compass
in Beverly Hills.

Career

Saad became interested in the culinary business when he was a teenager working at a diner behind his junior high school. Later in his life, he enrolled in the Hotel Restaurant Management Program at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

. There he earned the title of chef de cuisine during his

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

year. He continued studies at the

Culinary Institute of America The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a private culinary school with its main campus in Hyde Park, New York, and branch campuses in St. Helena and Napa, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Singapore. The college, which was the first to ...

and the California Culinary Academy. He performed his internship in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, with Anton Mosimann. In 1993 Saad traveled to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

looking to expand his knowledge of the

Mexican cuisine Mexican cuisine consists of the cuisines and associated traditions of the modern country of Mexico. Its earliest roots lie in Mesoamerican Cuisine, Mesoamerican cuisine. Mexican cuisine's ingredients and methods arise from the area's first agr ...

. This led him to open a Mexican-influenced restaurant called Sweet Heat in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. After that, he opened two more restaurants and started his own signature line of bottled

chutney A chutney () is a spread typically associated with cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt, or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion ...

s. Among his culinary and business ventures, he became a partner of California's Pasta Pomodoro Italian Restaurants. After that, Saad moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

with his wife and they both started running a real estate company. In 2009 Saad auditioned for the fifth season of the show '' The Next Food Network Star''. He ended up as the first runner-up, losing to Melissa d'Arabian in the finale. However,

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...

gave him the opportunity to host his own web series called ''Spice Smuggler'', where he highlighted spices and foods from other countries. The web series ran for a year, and then

asked him to be the host of the show '' United Tastes of America''. Saad is a partner and executive chef of "The Grove" restaurants in San Francisco. He also distributes his own collection of spice blends. In 2012, Saad released his first cookbook titled ''Jeffrey Saad's Global Kitchen: Recipes Without Borders''. On December 9, 2013, he opened the restaurant, La Ventura in Studio City, California.

Television appearances

In addition to his own shows, Saad has appeared on these other cooking shows: * '' Grill It! with Bobby Flay'' * ''Unique Sweets'' * ''Unique Cocktails'' * '' The Rachael Ray Show'' * '' Iron Chef America Countdown'' * '' ABC World News Now'' In 2012 he competed in

's '' Chopped All-Stars''. Saad ended up in second place, behind Marcus Samuelsson, but above chefs like Keegan Gerhard, Aarti Sequeira, and Michael Symon.

Personal life

Saad lives in

with his wife, Nadia, and two children. His wife is of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian descent. Saad enjoys surfing and mountain biking. He also practices

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

. He began practicing it while studying in college, and reached black belt under Master Brandt in

. He also practiced at the Southern California Tae Kwon Do Center under Scot Lewis where he received his second degree black belt.Jeffrey Saad Talks The Next Food Network Star, Tae Kwon Do and More
on About.com; Rousseau, Robert rumar has it is riddled with hep c

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saad, Jeffrey 1960s births American restaurateurs American television chefs American male chefs American male taekwondo practitioners Businesspeople from Chicago Culinary Institute of America alumni Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Participants in American reality television series Reality cooking competition contestants 20th-century American sportsmen