Executive Chef Tommy DiGiovanni

Gaetano "Tommy" DiGiovanni is Arnaud's Executive Chef. Considered one of the South's leading young chefs, this New Orleans native has concentrated his career in his hometown.

Proprietor Archie Casbarian asked him to take over Arnaud's kitchen where he had worked when he was just starting out. His first day back, Tommy was greeted by a large "Welcome home, Tommy" banner.. In the interval, he gained impressive experience and proved himself at some of the city's finest restaurants. He was Executive Sous Chef at the Fairmont Hotel when Casbarian tapped him to return, and Executive Sous Chef at the Omni Royal Orleans, before that.

Tommy says, "The call from Mr. Casbarian was extraordinarily flattering. There is no one who is more respected in the restaurant business, anywhere." Returning to Arnaud's was like a homecoming. Returning as Executive Chef was a professional dream come true. "Where else would I find work that is so challenging, that offers such creative satisfaction, than in the kitchen of a legendary restaurant like Arnaud's," DiGiovanni asks, rhetorically.

Chef got an early start, at age 14, when he began working with his father at the family restaurant, The Little Italian, in suburban New Orleans. "I was just a kid," he says, and I didn't think of it then as any kind of 'career path.' But by the time I graduated from high school, I knew I wanted to pursue professional training."

He attended the University of New Orleans School of Hotel Restaurant and Tourism. He entered the highly competitive and demanding Culinary Arts Program at Delgado Community College. Before graduating from that highly respected program, he apprenticed at some of the area's finest restaurants and learned under the tutelage of renowned chefs.

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