Zak Pelaccio is the executive chef at the Fatty Crab in Manhattan's meatpacking district and, until 2005, was executive chef for 5 Ninth, also in the meatpacking district. Prior to opening 5 Ninth, Zak earned recognition among New York's foodie insiders at the Chickenbone Café in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Zakary is currently in the process of opening a second Fatty Crab on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and also a Southeast Asian influence barbecue restaurant called Fatty ‘Cue located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Zak’s training at the French Culinary Institute, stints working for Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud coupled with time spent in Southeast Asia give him a breadth of experience that can be applied to both Western and Eastern culinary styles. Before he attended culinary school, Zak worked as a cook for half a year at Seri Melayu in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in the Thai kitchen of the Westin Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

A graduate of the University of Vermont, Pelaccio held a number of positions in the food industry before pursuing a career as a chef. He ran his own food software business, wiredkitchen.com, trained as a manager and purchasing agent with the Myriad Restaurant Group and was a scriptwriter and field producer for TV Food Network’s “Dining Around.”

Zak is an active member of Slow Food and is on the advisory board of Heritage Foods USA, which focuses on preserving rare breeds of animals indigenous to the United States.