Clark Wolf

Clark Wolf has more than thirty years of experience in the food industry and is founder and President of Clark Wolf Company, a New York-based food and restaurant consulting firm. He has been called the "slam dunk, hit city food consultant" and a "Merchandising Maestro."

Wolf has consulted to major hotel companies, such as Loews, Rosewood, and Sheraton, to venerable institutions like The Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center and The Guggenheim Museum, to legendary restaurants such as The Russian Tea Room, The Library at The Regency Hotel and The Sign of the Dove, to Las Vegas Casinos, like Mandalay Bay, Paris Las Vegas and Caesar’s Palace, and to food companies and marketing boards like The Walnut Marketing Board, Food and Wines from France and The California Milk Advisory Board.

Wolf is a Contributing Authority to Food Arts Magazine and has written a regular cuisine and culture commentary column for Forbes Magazine. His newly published book American Cheeses, published by Simon & Schuster, was called by Alex Witchell of The New York Times as "a savvy valentine to the men and women who devote their lives to the labor-intensive passion of cheesemaking." He has been a contributing editor to COOK'S Magazine and Mirabella, a consulting editor to the Gourmet Retailer and Wine & Food Companion and editorial director of Spice, a food and beverage industry publication. In addition to numerous other media appearances, he has appeared on CNN, the TV Food Network, and as a regular contributor on CNBC's "The Real Story”. He was The Cheese Wizard on AOL’s website, Thrive.

Traveling extensively, he lectures and gives seminars to chefs' associations, food professionals, cooking and food service students and industry groups from California to Paris on subjects ranging from food trends, specialty foods, restaurants and marketing to restaurant real estate and finance.

Wolf’s work in Design Direction has led to the creation in collaboration with Fortessa, one of the industry’s leading design, development and marketing companies, of a successful line of tableware that is utilized in hotels and restaurants around the country and sold in select retail environments, including Crate & Barrel.

After leaving his Southern California hometown for the San Francisco Bay Area to complete a degree in English Literature, Wolf was a waiter on the railroad, working eighteen-hour days on the line from Oakland to Chicago. He then opened

and managed a cheese and wine shop at the base of Nob Hill, where a chance meeting led to a lasting friendship with the legendary James Beard. Wolf next opened the San Francisco branch of the Oakville Grocery and retooled the original Napa Valley store. He was the first to retail Laura Chenel’s California Chevre and spent countless hours finding and sampling foodstuffs with the likes of Marion Cunningham, Alice Waters, Ruth Reichl, Jeremiah Tower and Catherine Brandel.

In 1982, he was brought to Manhattan by Barbara Kafka to open and run Star Spangled Foods. One year later, Wolf began traveling, lecturing, consulting to specialty food retail stores and doing some ancillary restaurant consulting. After being recommended to The Santo Group by John Mariani, Wolf and Joe Santo created Arizona 206. They then collaborated on the re-do of The Sign of the Dove (earning three stars in the NY Times), Yellowfingers and Arizona café.

In 1986 Wolf formed Clark Wolf Company. In 1989 he began consulting to Jonathan Tisch and Loews Hotels, with whom he has worked on eighteen hotels, including four now in development. In 1994, he opened his own restaurant, The Markham, in New York City. After a successful two year run, wolf sold his part of The Markham to refocus on Clark Wolf Company.

Since 1996, Wolf has served as Chair of the Advisory Committee to New York University’s Department of Nutrition & Food Studies. After founding the New York chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food, he served on its National Board and mounted six international conferences. Other pro bono work includes: consulting to annual fundraising event for Thirteen/WNET for the last sixteen years, creating the Sunday Night Supper for God’s Love We Deliver and serving on the Executive Committee of Aid & Comfort benefits in San Francisco and Boston.

Current and recent projects include: Mandalay Resort Group in Las Vegas; Park Place Entertainment in Las Vegas and other locations nationally, including Caesar’s Palace, The Flamingo, Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas; East West Partners in North Lake Tahoe, Denver and Beaver Creek, CO; the recently re-done Hotel Del Coronado and Arizona Biltmore; The National Arts Club; Rockefeller University; the Sheraton Universal Hotel at Universal Studios; and the Resort and Spa at Natirar.