Michael Ruggiero
Michael Ruggiero is a chef, photographer and photojournalist working as a contributor to both large and small city newspapers since 1985. He was educated in Photography at the Grossmont City College and apprenticed chef at the San Diego Hilton Hotel in San Diego, California.
His first exhibition of his work was in 1983 at the Lapey Rome Galley in Paris, France. Upon returning to the USA, he became a Chef but continued his pursuit of being a photojournalist. In the 1980’s his reputation grew as a chef along side his passion for “street photography”. He returned to Europe on several occasions traveling through many of her famous cities looking for that “decisive moment”. As the 90’s ended, he decided that a career of being a chef wasn’t so bad after all, since it was using his creative cooking talents to make a living while creating a body of photography that spans 40 years.
Currently he lives, takes pictures and works (still in the kitchen!) on the eastern end of Long Island, New York with his wife of 32 years, two dogs, a cat, some fish and oh yah, a 26 year old son.