DEAN & DELUCA

Joe Murphy, a Michelin-starred chef with over 25 years of experience working alongside acclaimed chefs, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Alfred Portale, brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to DEAN & DELUCA.

 Murphy fell in love with food at a young age. As a child, he would forage for wild mushrooms with his family in the summer, selling them to local chefs near their weekend home in upstate New York. At the age of 15, he landed his first job as a dishwasher at a local Brooklyn clam bar.

He worked several more industry jobs at various bakeries in his neighborhood before taking a tour of the Culinary Institute of America in New York. As he walked through the school and watched pastry chefs pulling sugar for candy, he was inspired by the creative potential in the culinary arts and enrolled in a program for baking and pastry arts.

Upon Murphy’s graduation from the CIA, his career very quickly kicked into full gear; he worked at a number of top-rated restaurants such as the Symphony Café, La Côte Basque and Park Avenue Café, before being hired at the famed Gotham Bar & Grill as the Executive Pastry Chef in 1997. At Gotham Bar & Grill, Murphy fine-tuned his craft, experimenting with avant-garde flavors and textures that elevated the restaurant’s already renowned menu, drawing accolades from diners and critics alike.

After four fruitful years, he left Gotham Bar & Grill to engage in other creative opportunities, including teaching pastry at the Culinary Institute of America and the French Culinary Institute, and opening a new venture with several partners called Fresh - a 100-seat TriBeCa restaurant specializing in seafood that the New York Times’ Eric Asimov awarded two stars.

In 2003 another opportunity came knocking when Murphy was offered the position of Corporate Pastry Chef with Jean-Georges Restaurant Group. At Jean-Georges, he travelled extensively to quality-check the restaurant group’s overseas properties in London, Paris, Bahamas and Shanghai, while also overseeing the pastry operations at New York-based restaurants Vong, V Steak, Mercer Kitchen and JoJo. During his time in this position, Murphy’s American approach to classic French desserts continued to turn heads; in 2006 he was included in Pastry Art and Design Magazine’s list of “Top 10 Pastry Chefs in the Country.” 

Murphy parted ways with Jean-Georges Restaurant Group in 2007 to work with acclaimed chef Laurent Tourondel as executive pastry chef of BLT Market and The Ritz-Carlton’s Star Lounge, only to return in 2011. During his second tenure at Jean-Georges, Murphy and his team earned Jean-Georges Restaurant three Michelin stars, and a four-star review in the New York Times.

In 2016, Murphy was hired by DEAN & DELUCA as Corporate Pastry Chef. He joins a dedicated line of trailblazers whose commitment to offering exceptional fare of the highest quality has become legendary across the world over. As a born and bred New Yorker, his reverence for original founding partner, Giorgio DeLuca – an innovator of exquisite fine foods with incomparable quality and taste - has prevailed for as long as he can remember.

In his current role, Murphy spearheads recipe development for the bakery and café, while also managing the country-wide pastry and bakery teams. As Corporate Pastry Chef, he takes pride in ensuring all company offerings are consistently executed with chef-driven flavors, showcasing the quality and freshness that has become the hallmark of the DEAN & DELUCA brand.