“Top Chef”'s Tom Colicchio Opens Up About Raising His Young Sons: 'They Test Boundaries' (Exclusive)

Colicchio, 61, shares two children, Luka, 14, and Mateo, 13, with wife Lori Silverbush and one son from a former relationship, Dante, 31

After spending most of his life in kitchens, it’s no surprise that Tom Colicchio met his wife in a restaurant.

The longtime Top Chef judge told PEOPLE — during the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen from June 14-16 — about how he met his wife of 22 years, Lori Silverbush.

Colicchio, 61, explained that he met Silverbush in 1994 not long after opening New York City hot spot Gramercy Tavern, which was just honored at a pop-up dinner event at the Food & Wine Classic to celebrate the restaurant's 30th anniversary.

“She was working there,” he says. “She was waiting tables, putting herself through graduate school as a writer, a screenwriter and film director.”

“We met and a couple of years later fell in love,” he adds.

Silverbush supplemented her filmmaking dreams and NYU education in cinema studies by working at Colicchio’s restaurant. Back in 2001, Silverbush told the New York Times that she could tell that the restaurateur “needed someone to talk to” and that the relationship grew to be romantic from there. Over their years of dating, Silverbush left Gramercy Tavern and was a full-time filmmaker and Colicchio worked on cookbooks and opened more restaurants. On Sept. 15, 2001, the pair tied the knot in an intimate ceremony on Martha’s Vineyard.

Related: Top Chef Finalists Reveal Their ‘Surprising’ Behind-the-Scenes Moments Before Season 21 Finale (Exclusive)

Now, the couple lives in Brooklyn with their two sons, Luka, 14, and Mateo, 13. (Colicchio has a third son, Dante, 31, from a previous relationship.) When asked about how he feels about having two teens in the house, Colicchio was happy to report that it’s “actually going fine.”

“They’re pretty easy for teenagers,” he laughs. “Yeah, they do teenager stuff, they test boundaries, but they’re good kids.”

The best part about raising teenaged boys in N.Y.C.? Not having to worry about driving.

“I think raising kids in the city is pretty good. Number one, right now, I’d be worried about my 15-year-old driving next year,” he says of Luka, who turns 15 in August. “He’s not going to drive in the city.”

Neither of his younger children seem to have caught the culinary bug — “My youngest doesn’t eat,” Colicchio jokes — but Dante has followed his father into the restaurant business.

“He bartends. He’s really into mixology,” the chef says.

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