Clark Wolf has more than twenty –five years of experience in the food industry
and is founder and President of Clark Wolf Company, a New York-based food and
restaurant consulting firm. He has been called the "slam dunk, hit city food
consultant" and a "Merchandising Maestro."
Wolf has consulted to major hotel companies, such as Loews, Rosewood,
and Sheraton, to venerable institutions like The Kennedy Center,
Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center and The Guggenheim Museum,
to legendary restaurants such as The Russian Tea Room, The Library at
The Regency Hotel and The Sign of the Dove, to Las Vegas Casinos,
like Mandalay Bay, Paris Las Vegas and Caesar’s Palace, and
to food companies and marketing boards like The Walnut Marketing Board,
Food and Wines from France and The California Milk Advisory Board.
Wolf is a Contributing Authority to Food Arts
Magazine and has written a regular cuisine and culture commentary column for
Forbes Magazine. He is currently working on a book about America ’s cheeses
for Simon & Schuster. He has been a contributing editor to COOK'S
Magazine and Mirabella, a consulting editor to the Gourmet
Retailer and Wine & Food Companion and editorial director of
Spice, a food and beverage industry publication. In addition to numerous
other media appearances, he has appeared on CNN, the TV Food Network,
and as a regular contributor on CNBC's "The Real Story”. He was The Cheese
Wizard on AOL’s website, Thrive.
Traveling extensively, he lectures and gives
seminars to chefs' associations, food professionals, cooking and food service
students and industry groups from California to Paris on subjects ranging from
food trends, specialty foods, restaurants and marketing to restaurant real
estate and finance.
Wolf’s success in Design Direction has led to
the creation of Clark Wolf for Fortessa, a custom line of tableware in
collaboration with Fortessa, one of the industry’s leading design, development
and marketing companies.
After leaving his Southern California hometown for the
San Francisco Bay Area to complete a degree in English Literature, Wolf was a
waiter on the railroad, working eighteen-hour days on the line from Oakland to
Chicago . He then opened and managed a cheese and wine shop at the base of Nob
Hill, where a chance meeting led to a lasting friendship with the legendary
James Beard.
Wolf next opened the San Francisco branch of the
Oakville Grocery and retooled the original Napa Valley store. He was the
first to retail Laura Chenel’s California Chevre and spent countless hours
finding and sampling foodstuffs with the likes of Marion Cunningham, Alice
Waters, Ruth Reichl, Jeremiah Tower and Catherine Brandel.
In 1982, he was brought to Manhattan by Barbara
Kafka to open and run Star Spangled Foods.
One year later, Wolf
began traveling, lecturing, consulting to specialty food retail stores and doing
some ancillary restaurant consulting.
After being recommended to The Santo Group by John Mariani, Wolf
and Joe Santo created Arizona 206. They then collaborated on the re-do of The
Sign of the Dove (earning three stars in the NY Times) Yellowfingers, and
Arizona café.
In 1986 Wolf formed Clark Wolf Company.
In 1989 he began
consulting to Jonathan Tisch and Loews Hotels, with whom he has worked on
eighteen hotels, including four now in development.
In 1994, he opened his own restaurant, The Markham, in New York
City .
After a successful two year run, wolf sold his part of The Markham to refocus on
Clark Wolf Company.
Since 1996, Wolf has served as Chair of the
Advisory Committee to New York University ’s Department of Nutrition,
Food Studies and Public Health.
After founding the New York chapter of
the American Institute of Wine & Food, he served on its National Board and
mounted six international conferences.
Other pro bono work includes:
consulting to annual fundraising event for Thirteen/WNET for the
last sixteen years, creating the Sunday Night Supper for God’s Love We Deliver
and serving on the
Executive Committee of
Aid & Comfort benefits in San Francisco and Boston.
Current and recent collaborations have included
restaurants with well known Chefs Hubert Keller (Fleur de Lys at Mandalay
Bay in Las Vegas ), Bradley Ogden (Bradley Ogden at Caesar’s Palace in
Las Vegas ), Rick Moonen (RM Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay ) and Richard
Sandoval (Zengo in Denver ).
Other current and recent projects include: Lincoln Center; Fao
Schwarz; Brooklyn Bridge Park; NetJets; Fauchon in New
York City; Sofitel in Los Angeles and Redwood City; Park Place
Entertainment in Las Vegas and other locations nationally, including
Caesar’s Palace, The Flamingo, Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas;
East West Partners in North Lake Tahoe, Denver and Beaver Creek, CO;
the Royal Pacific Resort, Portofino Bay Hotel and The Hard Rock
Hotel for Loews Hotels and Universal/MCA in Orlando; the California Milk
Advisory Board; the Walnut Marketing Board.
Scott Mitchell has extensive experience at the core development of creative and
trend-based small businesses. Mitchell studied design at the University of
Texas at Austin and has led several academically-based national organizations.
As a design partner at the leading custom bridal house in New York he was
instrumental in tripling sales and profits without increasing staff size.
During his years as assistant to the designer John Bartlett, Mitchell was key to
the launch of a new division and the transfer of the production to Italy and
managed the New York headquarters.
After joining Clark Wolf Company in 1998, Mitchell quickly progressed to being
its Vice President, and he has been a partner since 2001. In addition to
managing the day to day operation of the company, he oversees strategic planning
and business operations and acts as the company’s Treasurer.
With a diverse background and broad range of abilities, both internally and for
clients, Mitchell does everything from proposals, RFP’s, web development and
graphic development to financial models, business plans and budgeting.
Tosca Giamatti holds a Bachelors degree in English and a Masters in Food Studies
from New York University .
Her broad range of restaurant, specialty food and hospitality experience
includes stints at Food Arts Magazine, Dean & Deluca, The Soho
Grand Hotel, Murray’s Cheese Shop and Night Sky Restaurant Group.
In addition to managing the selection, acquisition, specification and
presentation of Tabletop programs for Hotel and Restaurant clients, Tosca
coordinates community outreach and professional conferences, oversees all office
activities, and works with Clark on a variety of book, magazine and other media
projects.