Who is Antonia Lofaso?
American celebrity chef and restaurateur Antonia Lofaso was born in Northridge, Los Angeles, California USA, on 23 November 1976, making her zodiac sign Sagittarius. She’s perhaps best known for having competed in the fourth season of the reality TV competition show “Top Chef”, which stars Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons, and follows a group of chefs as they’re competing against one another, while several food and wine experts are rating the meals which they’ve prepared; the show’s been running since 2006, and has won nine of its 94 award nominations.
Education and early life
Antonia and her brother Dominick Lofaso were raised in New York City by their father Fred Lofaso who was a chef, and their mother whose name hasn’t been shared with the public, but who was a housewife; Dominick’s today the owner of a boxing gym.
It was Antonia’s father who helped her fall in love with cooking, as the two began preparing food together when Antonia was eight years old. She wasn’t physically active as a teenager, but was interested in various other activities while attending a local high school, including practicing creative writing and playing supporting characters in school plays.
Upon matriculating in 1995, Antonia enrolled at French Culinary Institute in New York City, from which she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1999.
Career as a chef
While still attending the Institute, Antonia was working as manager of a restaurant owned by famous American rapper and actor Sean Love Combs, then upon graduation, she worked as a chef at the Los Angeles restaurants Foxtail and Spago.
She’s today the owner of three restaurants in Los Angeles: Scopa Italian Roots, DAMA and Black Market Liquor Bar.
Antonia’s also an author, having published her book “The Busy Mom’s Cookbook: 100 Recipes for Quick, Delicious, Home-Cooked Meals” in August 2012.
TV appearances
Her debut appearance was in “Top Chef”; she appeared in 30 episodes between 2008 and 2016.
In 2012, Antonia could have been seen guest starring in the talk-show “The Chew”, and was then invited to appear in the talk-shows “Big Morning Buzz Live” and “Beat the Chefs”, while she was also featured in the 2013 documentary series “Unsung”.
In 2014 and 2015, she appeared in 26 episodes of “Alton’s After-Show”, which shows all the scenes which weren’t shown in the reality game-show “Cutthroat Kitchen”, as well as revealing various secrets about it.
Antonia could then have been seen making a guest appearance in an episode of the talk- and game-shows “Man vs. Child: Chef Showdown”, “Star Plates” and “FabLife”.
Between 2013 and 2016, she served as a judge on the reality game-show “Cutthroat Kitchen”, starring alongside Alton Brown and Simon Majumdar; it follows a group of chefs as they’re preparing various dishes and competing against each other – the show was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs. Antonia was then invited to appear in the shows “The Real O’Neals”, “Top Chef Jr” and “Iron Chef America: The Series”.
In 2018 and 2019, she starred in the reality show “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”, which follows many chefs as they’re talking about their favorite foods and where to find them, and from 2019 to 2021, Antonia appeared in the family show “Guy’s Ranch Kitchen”, which follows Guy Fieri and his friends’ cook-off.
Between 2017 and 2021, she worked as a judge on the reality game-show “Guy’s Grocery Games”, starring alongside Guy Fieri and Troy Johnson; it follows a group of chefs as they’re cooking inside a grocery store for a prize of $20,000.
Most recently, in 2022, Antonia worked as a judge on the game-show “Alex Vs. America”, appeared in two episodes of the talk-show “The Kelly Clarkson Show”, and co-hosted the show “Guy’s Ultimate Game Night”.
Love life and relationships
Antonia prefers to maintain her privacy, and has shared very little about her love life with the public.
It’s still widely known that she was once in a relationship with the late Jamaican-born American rapper and actor Dwight Arrington ‘Heavy D’ Myers, perhaps best known as the leader of the rap group Heavy D & the Boyz, which also comprised Troy ‘Trouble’ Dixon, Glen ‘G-Whiz’ Parrish and Edward ‘Eddie F’ Ferrell.
Antonia gave birth to her and Heavy D’s daughter Xea Myers in 2000, and she and Heavy D remained together until his death on 8 November 2011; he passed away from a pulmonary embolism, after a blood clot from his leg had blocked an artery in his lungs.
Antonia hasn’t mentioned the men whom she’s perhaps dated since then, however, some of her fans believe that she was, and perhaps still is in a relationship with Guy Fieri; both she and Guy have denied these rumors.
Antonia seems to be unattached as of November 2022, hasn’t married and has a daughter with former boyfriend Heavy D.
Hobbies and interesting facts
Antonia’s leading a healthy lifestyle, and often gives her fans advice on working out and dieting.
She doesn’t have a YouTube channel, but many videos about her have been shared on the network by various users, mostly by Food Network.
Antonia’s followed by nearly 400,000 people on Instagram, and has posted over 400 pictures and videos onto the network; most of these feature her during her everyday life.
She’s into travelling, and has been all around the world for both work and pleasure; Antonia loves French cuisine, and her favorite city to travel to is Paris.
Her favorite actresses are Katherine Heigl and Drew Barrymore, while some of her favorite movies include “Fear of Rain”, “One for the Money” and “Life as We Know It”.
She enjoys sun tanning at the beach, thus making summer her favorite season.
Age, height and wealth
Antonia’s age is 45. Her eyes and hair are brown, her weight is 165lbs (75kgs) and she’s 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall.
Antonia’s net worth’s been estimated at over $3 million, as of November 2022.
