Mark Strausman was born in Queens, New York in 1956. Growing up in Flushing, he was always attracted to cooking and often made meals for the family. "My mom and I had a simple deal, which she loved, " he recalls, "I would shop and cook, she would clean." His first job in the food service industry was selling peanuts at Shea Stadium, but he began to cook professionally while earning a degree in Hotel Management in the highly respected culinary program at New York City Technical College. When the school offered to place him overseas after graduation, Mark jumped at the opportunity.

He spent the next four years working and training in some of the best five-star hotels in Europe, including the Hessischer Hof and Kempinski Hotel Gravenbrauch Frankfurt, the Montreaux Palace, Montreaux, and the Amstel Hotel, Amsterdam. He was indoctrinated in the strict European caste system, working from the Comme de Cuisine to Chef de Cuisine. "It's kind of like being a musician," he says, "you need to learn the classics before you can strike out on your own." Returning to New York in the mid 1980's, Mark worked at the Stanhope and Jacqueline’s; using the classic continental skills he had gained abroad.

But his future was in Italian food. "French food is great", he says, "but there is only so much one can do with it. You know with television they say that the medium is the message. Well, with Italians the medium is food - good, sensual food." Early in 1988, Mark opened Sapore di Mare in East Hampton with Pino Luongo and the rest, as they say, is history. Sapore became the hardest place in town to get table, as weekending New Yorkers made it the only place to be seen. Late in 1990, the pair opened Coco Pazzo on the Upper East Side of New York, which quickly garnered critical acclaim, including a coveted three-star rating from the New York Times.

In 1992, Strausman was selected Best American Chef by Tenimenti di Barolo e Fontanafredda in Alba, Italy, and received Grand Prize in the 1992 Proscuitto di Parma Chef Recipe Contest.

Leaving Coco Pazzo in June 1993, he founded Mark Strausman's Entertainment Catering, a company that specialized in off-premise catering and special events, and whose functions included the 1994 Grammy party for SONY Music at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Opening Campagna in June 1994, Strausman realized the dream of owning his own restaurant. Labeled "media central" by New York Magazine, Campagna was an instant critical and commercial success for it’s simple, updated Italian peasant food. Campagna expanded to include Campagna Catering, an off-premise catering company with an impressive client list.

In 1996 Strausman was tapped to run Barney’s restaurant in its flagship store on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Renamed Fred’s, the restaurant in 2001 moved to the 9th floor of Barneys, where it has became a magnet for celebrities and the New York society of the well-heeled neighborhood. Fred’s has been featured in Women’s Wear Daily, The New York Observer, and New York Magazine, among other publications, and is known for being “the” place to be seen for lunch in New York.

Strausman has worked as a consultant for Wegman’s, and spent two years in menu planning, product development, recipe program, corporate food training and team building, culminating in the development and launch of Wegman’s Italian Classics collection

After a successful ten year run at Campagna, Mark Strausman decided to close the doors. In 2003 he entered into a partnership with Pino Luongo to run Coco Pazzo and re-entered the kitchen as chef/owner.

In October 2007 Mark and Pino released their first cookbook together called Two Meatballs in the Italian Kitchen, published by Artisan Books. Two Meatballs has already received critical acclaim, is on the list of Amazon’s top 25 Italian cookbooks, as well as receiving a James Beard nomination.

Strausman has been featured in many publications, and on television, appearing on "The Late Show with David Letterman", Lifetime’s popular "The Home Show", “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”, Discovery’s “Home Matters”, CBS’s “The Early Show”, NBC’s “Weekend Today in New York”, and is a regular guest on “Martha Stewart Living”, among others.

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