Madison Cowan is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

-born American celebrity chef, and consulting chef. He was the first Grand Champion of

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

's '' Chopped''. He co-stars in

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’s travel series '' No Kitchen Required'', appeared as a judge on

’s '' Extreme Chef'' and in cooking segments on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

’s ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It wa ...

'' and ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday ...

''. Cowan resides in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

Early life

Madison Cowan was born in

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th centu ...

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, ...

, his father is from

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

and his mother is an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

. He started cooking at age 14. His father was diagnosed with

Alzheimer’s disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...

, which ran in their family, and was a catalyst for his own advocacy work for the disease.

Restaurant and food career

Early in Cowan's career he worked at ''

Tavern on the Green Tavern on the Green is an American cuisine restaurant in Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, near the intersection of Central Park West and West 66th Street on the Upper West Side. The restaurant, housed in a former sheepfold, has been o ...

'', under Patrick Clark. Cowan was an executive chef at ''Ashbells'' in London. Cowan was a co-owner of ''Avenue Inc.,'' a supper club and cater company in New York City. From March 2013 to 2014, Cowan was the consulting chef for the restaurant ''Slide'', located at 174 Bleecker Street, New York City. In 2018, he was a participant in Michelle Obama's "Chefs Move to Schools" project.

Television appearances

In 2010, Cowan was awarded the first title of "Grand Champion" of the culinary reality television show ''Chopped'' (Food Network), which also had a cash prize of $50,000 USD. In April 2012, he won "Battle: Kale" on

's ''

Iron Chef America ''Iron Chef America'' is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's ''Iron Chef'', and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed ''Iron Chef USA'' that aired in 2001. The show is produced by Food Network, whi ...

'' (season 10, episode 3), with

Amanda Freitag Amanda Freitag (born May 11, 1972) is an American celebrity chef, and cookbook author. She is known for her frequent guest on Food Network television programs and work as a judge on the television cooking competitions. She is based in New York Cit ...

and his runner-up on ''Chopped'' Lance Nitahara serving as his sous chefs, defeating Iron Chef

Jose Garces Jose Garces is an Ecuadorian American chef, restaurant owner, and Iron Chef. He was born in Chicago to Ecuadorian parents. He won in the second season of '' The Next Iron Chef''. Garces studied Culinary Arts at Kendall College in Chicago, grad ...

References

External links

* American television chefs American male chefs Food Network chefs Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Chefs from New York City British chefs BBC television presenters Iron Chef contestants African-American chefs British people of Jamaican descent British people of American descent {{Food-bio-stub