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A true icon in Maine's diverse and ever-growing restaurant scene, Yarmouth native Joe Ricchio is Maine magazine’s food editor. He writes our Eat Maine column, restaurant, and other food-related features. Joe has worked in restaurants since the age of 15 (over 35 restaurants). In addition to his new day job selling for SoPo Wine Company and his considerable commitment at Maine magazine, he still serves at Miyake—the job that he would say he loves the most.

Through experience, dependability and his gregarious personality, Joe is well-known and well-respected in the food community. In 2007 he founded the legendary Portland Death Match—a series of dinner parties where local restaurant notables cook together around a theme—for themselves. His relationships in and out of Maine have put him on the radar of Andrew Knowlton, restaurant editor of Bon Appétit, Andrew Zimmern host of Travel Channel’s "Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern," and Anthony Bourdain, author of “Kitchen Confidential” and host of “No Reservations.”

But Joe's passion for service transcends his work in restaurants. Alex Steed, founder of the sustainable dinner series Why Food Matters writes: "Joe is an extremely thoughtful, wonderfully generous character who bends over backwards to accommodate, give, and go out of his way to be charitable. For the second time in a year, Joe came out to Cornish, Maine to prepare food for my Why Food Matters dinner series, a series of events organized to get folks in Southwestern Maine excited about farm-to-table eating and the local economy. Joe enthusiastically agreed to do the event, which doubled as a fundraiser for a community center created in my fathers' honor, and before it was even over, he was brainstorming for another one down the road."

We are proud to work with Joe and count him as our friend.