CHEF
MARC
MURPHY
Owner and Executive Chef of Benchmarc
Restaurants by Marc Murphy and Benchmarc
Events by Marc Murphy
Ask Chef Marc Murphy where he grew up and
he’ll fire off a list of cosmopolitan destinations
— Milan, Paris, Villefranche, Washington
DC, Rome and Genoa — “and that’s before I
turned 12,” he’ll explain. This dizzying list of
hometowns served as an excellent education
in French and Italian cuisine, though as a
teenager this was not his first passion. When
the reality hit that he didn’t have the funds to
become a professional race car driver, Murphy
followed his brother to the Institute of Culinary
Education. Following graduation, he apprenticed
at restaurants in France and Italy before
returning to New York where he landed a job as
a line cook at Terrance Brennan’s Prix Fixe. He
stayed there for almost two years, working his
way through every station in the kitchen and
forging a professional bond with Brennan’s Sous
Chefs Joseph Fortunato and David Pasternak.
Eager to return to Europe, Murphy flew to
Paris and lan