Zak Pelaccio spent most of his childhood in Scarsdale, New York, where his parents instilled an appreciation for quality ingredients and thoughtful sourcing. His mother gardened and cooked every meal from scratch, while his father traveled to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx for good bread.
After graduating from the University of Vermont, Pelaccio bartended at Tribeca Grill and waited tables at Zoe until he had saved enough to spend six months hiking and climbing in Southeast Asia. The language barrier prompted a culinary revelation: “Food is the cultural bridge for all humanity. You might not share language, but you can always share food.”
After falling in love with the market food of Chiang Mai, Thailand, Pelaccio returned to New York and pursued two paths at once. Following his psychiatrist father, he enrolled in pre-med courses at Columbia; following his growing passion for cooking, he worked as a commis at Daniel. After one semester, he left Columbia to pursue cooking full time. He continued traveling between New York and Southeast Asia and spent nearly a year cooking at a traditional Malay restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.
After graduating at the top of his class from the French Culinary Institute, Pelaccio trained at the French Laundry and returned to Daniel. In 2002, he opened his first restaurant, the Chickenbone Café, a Williamsburg gastropub known for nose-to-tail cooking.
Two years later, Pelaccio opened 5 Ninth in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, where he met his future wife and business partner, Jori Jayne Emde.
Pelaccio and Emde worked together on the Southeast Asian-inspired Fatty Crab and Fatty ’Cue. Fatty Crab eventually expanded beyond New York to St. John in the US Virgin Islands and Hong Kong. Its success also led to Pelaccio’s work as a representative and key spokesperson for the Malaysia Kitchen for the World campaign. In 2010, he and Emde accompanied Martha Stewart on a trip organized with Malaysia’s Ministry of Tourism. His work at the restaurants became the basis for his 2012 cookbook, Eat with Your Hands.
In 2013, Pelaccio and Emde opened Fish & Game in a renovated 19th-century blacksmith shop in Hudson, New York, with business partner Patrick Milling Smith and co-chef Kevin Pomplun. The restaurant centered its frequently changing menu on local, seasonal ingredients. In 2016, Pelaccio won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northeast for his work there.
In 2020, Pelaccio and Emde closed Fish & Game and moved to Taos, New Mexico. They opened Corner Office, a restaurant and natural-wine bar, in 2022. The following year, it appeared on both Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America list and Wine Enthusiast’s Best Restaurants in America list.
Pelaccio is also a partner in two Salt Lake City restaurants: Copper Common, a restaurant and natural-wine bar, and Cosmica, an Italian diner. In 2025, Pelaccio opened Leo’s, a Thai and Malay-inspired restaurant in Santa Fe, with designer, woodworker, and cook Jonathan Boyd and beverage professional Ian Wolff. Stella Achenbach serves as executive chef. Esquire subsequently named it one of the Best New Restaurants in America.
