Raised in upstate New York, Carmen Quagliata has been eating and cooking Italian food since he was a child. Carmen attributes much of his food memories to the matriarchs of his family - from the aroma of his mom's fresh-baked Easter breads to his grandmother's homemade sausages and the wild oregano and oil-cured olives sent by relatives in Sicily.

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 1988, Carmen became an apprentice at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia under Chef Hartmut Handke. In 1990, he moved further South to work for the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. In 1991, he headed west to work for Michael Chiarello at Tra Vigne in the Napa Valley, where he was able to combine his Italian roots, classic training and the fresh local ingredients to develop his own culinary style. He was quickly promoted from Sous Chef to Executive Sous Chef to Executive Chef/Partner.

In 2001, Carmen fulfilled a dream, working for Lydia Bastianich at Felidia in New York. After seven intense months at Felidia, Carmen moved to Boston and became Chef at The Vault, which quickly earned three stars from both the Boston Herald and Boston Globe .