Michael Chiarello, Napa Valley celebrity chef, dies at 61

Michael Chiarello, a celebrity chef who owned restaurants in the Napa Valley and San Francisco, died Friday, his restaurant group said. He was 61.

Chiarello had been hospitalized at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa for several days prior to his death. He was being treated for anaphylactic shock after suffering an allergic reaction, Gruppo Chiarello, the company he founded, announced Saturday.

Further details weren’t immediately available.

Chiarello founded his first restaurant, Tra Vigne, in St. Helena in 1987 and was a high profile presence in Napa Valley’s food and wine scene as it grew in luster through the 1990s.

“He was just a genuine mentor-type chef responsible for training and inspiring a lot of the culinary youth,” said Charlie Palmer, a leading American chef who met Chiarello at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, from where they both graduated in the 1980s.

“He was very innovative and a trendsetter for both what he’s done on the Italian side of things and the Spanish tapas side of things,” Palmer, owner of restaurants including Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, said in an interview Saturday.

A serial entrepreneur, Chiarello spun off restaurants, an olive oil company and a specialty retail business, plus a series of award-winning cookbooks, TV cooking shows and organic, homegrown wines.

In 2016, two women who were servers at his Coqueta restaurant in San Francisco filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him and his restaurant group. Chiarello denied the allegations. The suit was later settled.

His current restaurants included two Coquetas — the one in San Francisco and another in Yountville — along with Ottimo and Bottega, both also in Yountville.

He was also the owner of Chiarello Family Vineyards, in Napa Valley, and hosted an Emmy Award-winning Food Network show, “Easy Entertaining.” He also hosted shows on PBS, Fine Living and the Cooking Channel.

According to his bio on Food Network’s website, Chiarello combined “his passion for seasonal, sustainable living – and the artisan purveyors who make it possible – into his endeavors.

“His unique perspective on good food and healthy living, spiced with a dose of Old World charm, inspires friends and family to create meaningful memories around the table.”

Funeral services will be private. In lieu of flowers, his family requests donations be made to Meals on Wheels.

Staff writer Madison Smalstig contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay