Rich Torrisi vividly remembers the first time he saw the New York City skyline. It is a moment indelibly inked into his mind, because it was the moment that changed everything, that set the course of his career to come. The 44-year-old chef and co-founder of Major Food Group, the powerhouse brand behind the likes of Carbone, ZZ’s Club, The Grill, and his now-iconic namesake eatery, Torrisi, describes the experience as “opening the door to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.”

He recalls growing up in Hastings-on-Hudson, a suburb of nearby Westchester, on the Hudson River, and how nearby Manhattan always seemed like a faraway dream. “Ever since I was a little kid, I’d head to the back of my grandmother’s apartment complex. There was a beautiful view there, and I was able to see all the way down the Hudson River and a slice of the New York City skyline. Looking at it, I was enthralled. The second I saw it, I fell in love with it.”