Gabriele Corcos: From Tuscan Cooking to Television Success
The Italian cook, author and TV personality built a public career around Tuscan food, family recipes and his long-running creative partnership with Debi Mazar.
Introduction
Gabriele Corcos is an Italian cook, television personality, food entrepreneur, producer and cookbook author.
Most people know him from Extra Virgin. He hosted the Cooking Channel series with his wife, actress Debi Mazar.
Food is the main thread.
Corcos grew up near Florence, surrounded by Tuscan cooking traditions. Years later, those early experiences became part of his television work, cookbooks and food businesses in the United States.
He has worked across several areas. Television. Books. Restaurants. Food media.
His career has also taken him back to Tuscany.
Quick Facts About Gabriele Corcos
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Gabriele Corcos |
| Date of Birth | October 7, 1972 |
| Birthplace | Florence, Italy |
| Profession | Cook, TV personality, author, producer and food entrepreneur |
| Known For | Extra Virgin |
| Spouse | Debi Mazar |
| Children | Two daughters, Evelina and Giulia |
| Major Cookbook | Extra Virgin: Recipes & Love from Our Tuscan Kitchen |
| Second Cookbook | Super Tuscan |
| Major TV Recognition | Extra Virgin won a 2016 James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award |
| Food Background | Tuscan cooking |
| Charity Connection | Feeding America Entertainment Council |
Who Is Gabriele Corcos?
Gabriele Corcos became widely known by bringing Tuscan home cooking to American television.
That sounds simple. It was.
His public work often focused on meals people could actually make at home. Family recipes had a big place in that story.
His partnership with Debi Mazar also made his television career stand out. They did not appear as two unrelated presenters placed together for a show. Their real family life sat right inside the format.
That became Extra Virgin.
The Cooking Channel series mixed Italian food, American life and scenes involving their family. Corcos cooked while the couple talked, joked and shared parts of everyday life.
The format worked.
Extra Virgin eventually ran for five seasons.
Early Life in Tuscany
Corcos was born in Florence, Italy, on October 7, 1972.
He was raised in the Tuscan hills above Florence. Publisher material for his later cookbook describes his childhood setting as a Tuscan olive orchard.
Food started early.
Corcos has said he began cooking when he was around six years old. Traditional family cooking shaped much of what he later brought to television.
His food identity did not come from creating flashy restaurant dishes for TV.
The roots were at home.
Recipes connected with his mother, grandmother and Tuscan upbringing later became part of his public cooking style.
That background stayed with him.
Music Came Before Food Television
Cooking was not Corcos’s first public career path.
He also had a strong interest in music and worked as a drummer.
That part of his story matters because his move into food television was not a straight line from childhood cooking to becoming a TV personality.
Life changed direction.
He met actress Debi Mazar in Florence. Their relationship later brought Corcos to the United States, where the pair started building a family and working on food projects together.
They married in 2002.
What followed was a mix of food, cameras and family life.
How Extra Virgin Started
Before mainstream television, Corcos and Mazar made cooking content together.
Their early food project used the name Under the Tuscan Gun.
The idea was casual. Cook food. Share recipes. Let people see the personality behind the dishes.
It eventually attracted wider attention.
Then television arrived.
Extra Virgin premiered on the Cooking Channel in 2011.
Corcos and Mazar served as hosts. They were also involved behind the scenes as producers.
The program centred on Tuscan-inspired cooking and their family life.
It was not only studio food.
Viewers saw the relationship between Italy and America, old family recipes, daily meals and the couple’s different personalities.
The series reached five seasons.
That became Corcos’s best-known television work.
James Beard Recognition
A major career moment came in 2016.
Extra Virgin received a James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award in the category Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location.
The award was attached to the program and its credited team.
Corcos and Mazar were listed as hosts. They were also among the show’s producers.
That detail matters.
It is more accurate to say Extra Virgin won the award than to describe Corcos as the sole winner of an individual chef award.
Still, it marked a big point in his TV career.
Gabriele Corcos on Chopped All-Stars
Corcos also appeared on Food Network’s Chopped All-Stars.
He competed in support of Feeding America.
His connection with the hunger-relief organisation continued beyond that appearance. Feeding America’s Entertainment Council currently lists Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar among its members.
So this was not simply a one-show charity mention.
It became part of their public charitable work.
Extra Virgin Cookbook
Television soon moved onto the page.
Corcos and Mazar co-wrote Extra Virgin: Recipes & Love from Our Tuscan Kitchen.
The cookbook was released in 2014.
It carried the same basic idea as their television series: family food with strong Tuscan roots.
The recipes covered several parts of Italian home cooking, including pasta, vegetables, meat, risotto and desserts.
But the book was not only recipes.
Their family story ran through it too.
That connection between food and daily life had already become a recognisable part of the pair’s work.
Super Tuscan
A second cookbook followed.
Super Tuscan: Heritage Recipes and Simple Pleasures from Our Kitchen to Your Table was published by Atria Books in October 2017.
Corcos and Mazar again wrote it together.
The book included more than 100 Italian-American recipes.
This time, the idea mixed Tuscan influences with dishes shaped by their American family life.
There was a clear pattern by then.
Tuscan roots stayed at the base. American influences came into the mix.
That combination became a big part of Corcos’s food identity.
The Tuscan Gun in Brooklyn
Corcos also moved into the restaurant business.
He operated The Tuscan Gun in Brooklyn, New York.
The food business gave him a physical space outside television and publishing.
It also became a base for other media work.
In 2018, Corcos hosted Counter Talk Live, a food program streamed from The Tuscan Gun.
The Brooklyn business later closed.
For that reason, it should be treated as part of his earlier career rather than described as a restaurant he currently runs.
Marriage to Debi Mazar
Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar have shared much of their public story.
Mazar is an American actress with film and television credits including Goodfellas, Entourage and Younger.
The pair met in Italy.
They married in 2002.
Their marriage later became closely tied to their professional work because the couple hosted television together, wrote books together and built food projects together.
They have two daughters, Evelina and Giulia.
Their children also appeared as part of the family setting around Extra Virgin.
Years later, the family made another big move.
They returned to Italy.
Returning to Italy
After years connected with New York, Corcos and his family moved back to Italy.
Recent reporting places the family in the Florence area.
For Corcos, that meant returning to the region that shaped his early relationship with food.
It makes sense.
His career travelled far from Tuscany, but Tuscan food never really left his work.
The move brought those two parts together again.
Gabriele Corcos and Tuscan Food
Corcos’s public cooking style is strongly tied to Tuscany.
That usually means fewer unnecessary extras.
Good ingredients matter.
So does family tradition.
His published recipes and television work have covered pasta, vegetables, meat, risotto and classic Italian dishes.
But his later work also showed American influence.
That is easy to see in Super Tuscan, which mixed Italian roots with recipes shaped by life in the United States.
Basically, his food story sits between two places.
Tuscany and America.
His Work as an Author
Corcos is best known for two major cookbooks written with Mazar:
Extra Virgin: Recipes & Love from Our Tuscan Kitchen
Published in 2014.
Super Tuscan: Heritage Recipes and Simple Pleasures from Our Kitchen to Your Table
Published in 2017.
Both books grew from the same food-and-family approach seen on television.
The second book included more than 100 recipes.
His publishing work helped carry his television audience into print.
His Charity Work
Corcos has a verified public connection with Feeding America.
Food Network listed Feeding America as his charity during his Chopped All-Stars appearance.
The organisation also lists Corcos and Mazar on its Entertainment Council.
Council members help raise public awareness around hunger and support Feeding America’s work through public campaigns and volunteering.
This is one of the clearer examples of Corcos using his food-media profile outside commercial projects.
Where Is Gabriele Corcos Now?
Corcos’s life has shifted back toward Italy.
Recent public reporting has connected him with Tuscany and Florence rather than his earlier Brooklyn restaurant work.
He remains publicly associated with cooking, food media, hospitality and his creative work with Debi Mazar.
His older television series remains the project most closely linked with his name.
But his career stretches further.
There are books. Food businesses. Media projects. Charity work.
And, once again, Tuscany.
Why Is Gabriele Corcos Famous?
The short answer is Extra Virgin.
The Cooking Channel series made Corcos widely known to American food audiences.
His marriage to Debi Mazar brought another public connection, but Corcos built his own place in food media through cooking, television production, books and restaurant work.
Extra Virgin later receiving James Beard Foundation recognition gave that work another level of industry recognition.
His Tuscan roots remained the constant part.
Final Thought
Gabriele Corcos built his public career around food he already knew.
Tuscan food.
He took those family influences to American television, then into books, a Brooklyn food business and other media projects.
Extra Virgin remains his best-known work.
Still, his story is wider than one TV series. It connects Florence, New York, cooking, marriage and family life over more than two decades.
Now his public life has moved back toward Tuscany.
In a way, the story returned home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Gabriele Corcos?
Gabriele Corcos is an Italian cook, television personality, author, producer and food entrepreneur. He is best known for co-hosting Extra Virgin with Debi Mazar.
When was Gabriele Corcos born?
He was born on October 7, 1972, in Florence, Italy.
What is Gabriele Corcos famous for?
He is mainly known for the Cooking Channel series Extra Virgin, which he hosted with his wife, Debi Mazar.
Who is Gabriele Corcos married to?
He is married to American actress Debi Mazar. They married in 2002.
Does Gabriele Corcos have children?
Yes. Corcos and Mazar have two daughters, Evelina and Giulia.
Did Extra Virgin win a James Beard Award?
Yes. Extra Virgin won the 2016 James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award for Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location.
What books has Gabriele Corcos written?
He co-authored Extra Virgin: Recipes & Love from Our Tuscan Kitchen and Super Tuscan: Heritage Recipes and Simple Pleasures from Our Kitchen to Your Table with Debi Mazar.
Is The Tuscan Gun still Gabriele Corcos’s current restaurant?
The Tuscan Gun was part of his earlier Brooklyn food career. Reliable later reporting states that the business closed, so it should not be presented as his current restaurant.
