Chris Cipollone

The Path

Training at Culinary Institute of America gave Chris Cipollone the technical base that still shows in the way his career is framed: rigor first, then application. From there, his path moved through ambitious kitchens that asked for control, consistency, and composure under pressure. The throughline is clear in the roles themselves—positions that required not just pace, but judgment. At Piora in West Village, New York City, Chris Cipollone served as co-founder and chef, placing his work inside one of Manhattan’s closely watched dining neighborhoods. He later became Executive Chef at Cotogna in San Francisco, California, adding another market and another operating context to the same disciplined trajectory. The result is a career marked by accumulation rather than spectacle: skills sharpened, standards maintained, and experience layered without drift. Since 2020, Chris Cipollone has continued as chef / co-founder of Francie. That role keeps the current chapter anchored in Brooklyn, where the earlier stages of training and leadership meet in one kitchen. The position reflects a career that has stayed coherent over time, with each step reinforcing the same values of poise, precision, and steady progression.

The Work Today

Since 2020, Cipollone has led the kitchen at Francie as chef and co-founder. In Brooklyn, the restaurant holds the present tense of his work, the place where training, leadership, and accumulated kitchen experience are put to use each service. It is the clearest expression of his approach: disciplined, deliberate, and built on the expectations formed in prior rooms. The Brooklyn restaurant is the current chapter of his work, and it shows a chef whose path has been shaped by consistency. The emphasis stays on control and continuity, with a practice that reads as the product of years spent inside demanding kitchens rather than of sudden reinvention.

In Their Words “Here at Piora, it's about paying respect to tradition, and I think Staub products are just that.” “Chris thrives on the artistry of cooking and believes that food should be fun.”