CHEF MACKENZIE MILONE
Chef Mackenzie Milone was born and raised in New Jersey, where time spent cooking with her mother and grandmother sparked a deep love for Italian home cooking. Her path to the kitchen wasn't direct — between ages eight and twelve she traveled in and out of New York pursuing acting, spending a formative year in Los Angeles and landing a role in Everybody's Fine alongside Robert De Niro. It was on those sets, watching cast and crew come alive at mealtimes and chatting with De Niro about food between shots, that she realized food was her true calling.
At seventeen, Mackenzie enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park — among the youngest in her class. She threw herself in fully, spending extra hours in the kitchen and diving into culinary history and wine alongside her coursework. A pivotal externship at Hotel Hershey's farm-to-table restaurant instilled a lasting respect for local sourcing, seasonal ingredients, and the relationships behind them. She graduated at nineteen and was on the line at Gramercy Tavern a week later.
Her New York career spans some of the city's most celebrated kitchens — Gramercy Tavern (1 Michelin Star), Restaurant Daniel (2 Michelin Stars), and Ci Siamo — where she worked her way through live-fire roast, meat roast, and pasta stations. She also spent a year working as a sommelier at a prestigious New York wine bar, an experience that deepened her understanding of how wine and food speak the same language.
Chef Mackenzie is currently Head Chef and Senior Manager of Culinary Operations at Resident. Her cuisine blends classical French technique with the home-style Italian cooking she grew up with. Known for her cinematic approach to menu development, she starts with the feeling she wants guests to carry when they leave — and builds everything from there.
