Chef Karlo was born and raised in Astoria, Queens and is of Croatian descent. Although none of his family members were in the hospitality industry, meals were a very important part of his upbringing. He and his family always ate every meal together no matter what. Chef Karlos' dad was a commercial painter, but because he came home first during the week, he was the one that cooked, and Karlo would more often than not stay in the kitchen with his father, watching and helping where he could. Once Karlo was able to see over the stove, he would make breakfast in bed for his parents every weekend at 6am at the latest. Burnt bacon, overcooked eggs and something that vaguely resembled toast! But his parents nurtured his interest in cooking and he would opt to watch Julia Childs, Jacques Pepin and The Galloping Gourmet rather than GI Joe or The Smurfs.

Chef Karlo started working in a small Italian-American restaurant in Astoria owned by a Croatian family when he was 14 and, other than his short time working at a liquor store before college, he has never had a job that didn't involve cooking. He graduated from CIA in 1997 subsequently getting his feet wet and making connections in the city until a former Sous Chef hired him at Le Cirque 2000. The knowledge he picked up laid the groundwork for the Chef he is today. He has traveled around the world a bit with the Cipriani organization opening a location for them in Hong Kong and spent time in London, Buenos Aires, Punta del Este, Monte Carlo, Miami and New York for them as the "covering Chef" while the chefs of the locations took vacation time. After, he landed at Cipollini in the Americana Manhasset where he did two stints as Executive Chef and where he was able to use everything he's learned leading up to that point and put it into practice. He absolutely loved that place and working for Poll Restaurants.

In between his two stints, he went to Jersey, in North Bergen right on the Hudson River to open a Restaurant/Catering Venue with his roommate from college called Waterside. That was the first place he was actually able to create his own menu from scratch for the restaurant and the banquet departments. Currently, Chef Karlo is a Private Chef and has three partners in a Deli/Cafe in Islandia and has been a much, much bigger part of my son's life than he was able to do the first 13 years of his life because of work, and he absolutely loves every second of being a Dad.