Chef
Paul Donnelly
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- New York City, New York, United States
i. Biography
Glasgow supplied the first working discipline in Paul Donnelly’s cooking: formal training, restaurant repetition, and the habits of heat, timing, and movement. The later work in New York City sits inside banquet-minded restaurant cooking, where traditional dishes are reworked through the demands of service, scale, and precision. At Chinese Tuxedo in New York City, Donnelly’s evidence is in that register: pans, woks, smoke, sauce, and decisions made quickly enough to hold the room.
The Route
Culinary-school training and early restaurant work set the base layer for Donnelly’s kitchen practice, with Glasgow Metropolitan College and Cameron's Restaurant providing the named foundations. The useful parts are not decorative: measured cuts, repeated motions, and the understanding that control is earned through craft rather than display. From that Scottish starting point, the work widened across cities and cultures while retaining a structured approach to cooking. The current New York City roles place Donnelly inside restaurants where pace, volume, and cross-cultural reference have to resolve on the plate. Leading the kitchens at Chinese Tuxedo and The Tyger, he works between technical restraint and flavors that move across borders. The progression from Glasgow to Sydney, Bangkok, and New York reads as a cook’s movement through different rhythms, ingredients, and service demands.
The Work Today
“My name is Paul Donnelly and I'm the Executive Chef at Chinese Tuxedo and The Tyger in New York City.” The statement is plain and functional, and it fixes the present work: two New York City kitchens, along with an Executive Chef role at Tuxedo Hospitality in New York. Banquet-style cooking at the Doyers Street restaurant is the central craft frame. From 2016 to present, Donnelly has led that kitchen, with a menu that reimagines traditional banquet dishes. The form asks for shared-table generosity and tight execution at the same time: dishes with presence, sequencing that can carry a room, and enough control to keep scale from softening the details. Texture and contrast are the working language at The Tyger in New York City, where Donnelly also heads the kitchen. Crispy Lamb Ribs are made with Lumina lamb ribs, fish sauce caramel, jasmine rice, cucumber, and herbs, setting richness against grain, coolness, and lift. Egg Noodles bring together oyster mushrooms, katsuobushi, lemon, and black pepper, using chew, savor, brightness, and heat as the structure of the dish. Cross-cultural composition appears in the way references are handled rather than announced. Speaking about another dish, Donnelly said, “miso definitely not Scottish, but I thought it would be very fun and playful to kind of a mishmash a little bit of different cultures within the dish.” The useful point for the trade is the balancing act: references can meet, but the dish still has to eat clearly.
Signature
Signature dishes include Loch Etive Rainbow Trout with Colcannon and Egg Noodles with oyster mushrooms.
Credentials
Industry recognition came in 2020, when Donnelly was named a StarChefs New York City Rising Stars Award Winner. The award sits in the New York chapter of the work, after Chinese Tuxedo had become the main setting for his reworked banquet cooking. It marks accumulation more than spectacle: training, travel, repetition, leadership, and the refinement of a point of view through service.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Paul
What is Paul Donnelly's current position?
Paul Donnelly is chef at Chinese Tuxedo — Modern Chinese.
Where did Paul Donnelly train or study?
Paul Donnelly trained at Glasgow Metropolitan College and Cameron's Restaurant.
What is Paul Donnelly known for?
Modern Chinese restaurant cooking, including reimagined traditional Chinese banquet dishes.
