Ted Siegel always knew he'd teach eventually. When he attended the Culinary Institute of America, his instructors told him to save his notebooks, because they knew so as well. He applied twice at ICE® throughout the 1990s, but timing ended up never being right. The third time was a charm, however, and when Director of Education Richard Simpson called Siegel around Memorial Day 2001 to offer him a position, he took the plunge. Siegel had grown tired of the business and was ready for a new challenge and a chance to pass on his extensive knowledge. "What I enjoy most are the people," he said of teaching. "They make up the most creative, interesting, and challenging part of the job. You're always dealing with different group dynamics, and no two days are the same."

His love of food had started early, growing up in the Lower East Side. Shortly before his 15th birthday, Siegel asked his parents for a stereo system, but they laughed and told him to work for it. He took a job as a delivery boy for a catering company, and then worked as a bus boy for a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey. As much as he enjoyed the culinary world, he had no intention of making a career in the industry, and instead went to college for a degree in political science and economy. After three years, Siegel went back to work for the catering company, then to Serendipity, and to several other places for the first half of his twenties. What he called "a sort of mid-life crisis" occurred when he was about 25, when a chef he worked for gave him a copy of Raymond Sokolov's The Saucier's Apprentice and helped him cook his way through it. Siegel decided that he wanted to take cooking more seriously than he had, and enrolled in culinary school in fall 1980. It is also then, he said, that France's nouvelle cuisine started affecting American regional cuisine, and food took a turn for the better in the US.

Siegel received about 12 offers when he graduated, including at New Orleans' famed Commander's Palace. But he wanted to move to San Francisco, and during his three-week job hunt there, ate at Café Panisse, part of Alice Waters' Chez Panisse restaurant. He returned two days later with his resume, and met with Joyce Goldstein, the restaurant's chef at the time. An instant connection formed between the two, and with Waters when Siegel met her, and he worked at Chez Panisse for nearly three years. "It really defined my food philosophy," he said of the experience. "For me it's about emphasizing the quality of ingredients, not having to do more than you have to. I don't believe in fancy garnishes or contrived preparations." He then moved to Los Angeles for his fist job as an executive chef, but did not like LA and moved back to the Bay Area two years later, to work in a classic French restaurant. This stint was followed by a job in St. Croix, where he met a restaurant owner from Nantucket. He then worked in Nantucket throughout the summer for four years, using the off season to travel and stage in Europe. Siegel returned to New York in the late 1990s, and while he does not travel as much as he used too, he still goes to France and Italy whenever he can. Siegel has two children, 23 and 12, and plays drums whenever he gets a chance.