EVAN FUNKE, two-time James Beard-nominated chef, is a culinary storyteller, a custodian of Italian tradition, and a master of the old world techniques of handmade pasta. Born in Santa Monica, California, in 1978, Evan Funke was raised in the Pacific Palisades. He is one of five children of Oscar winning special effects photographer Alex Funke and his wife, Emy.
Having learned the art of pasta early in his career, his singular passion as a pasta maker and chef was solidified in Bologna, under the mentorship of Alessandra Spisni at La Vecchia Scuola Bolognese. Widely known for his ardent dedication to seasonality, warmth in hospitality, and reverence for the deeply rooted culinary traditions of Italy, he brings more than two decades of excellence to all of his critically acclaimed restaurants – eponymous Funke in Beverly Hills; his homage to la cucina Romana at Mother Wolf in Hollywood, Las Vegas at the Fontainebleau Hotel, and in Miami’s Design District; the beloved Felix on Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice; Tre Dita at the St. Regis Hotel in Chicago. Notably, since 2022, Funke has been the official chef of the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar Party.
Felix Trattoria, which holds court on famed Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice, was the first restaurant to feature a pasta laboratorio in the center of the restaurant, with a menu highlighting the time-honored techniques of making pasta fatta a mano from various regions of Italy. At Mother Wolf, Funke pays homage to the Eternal City of Rome and La Cucina Romana, where the menu features Roman classics and wafer-thin pizza Romana. Funke, which is chef’s eponymous flagship, is a culmination of his culinary experiences and a 3-story love letter to Italy and the nonnas who have shared their knowledge and techniques with him over the years. At Tre Dita, Funke turns his attention to la cucina Toscana, highlighting the region’s pastas and reverence for grilled steaks. The name ‘Tre Dita’ means “three fingers” in Italian, and is a nod to the precise thickness of a perfectly cut bistecca Fiorentina, which succinctly complements the Windy City’s love for steak.
American Sfoglino, Funke’s critically acclaimed cookbook, was published by Chronicle Books and released in fall of 2019. The tome delves into the beauty and tradition of the sfoglia, a sheet of pasta rolled by hand, sharing classic techniques that are distinctly from the region of Emilia-Romagna. The book won the 2020 IACP Award for Best Cookbook, Chefs and Restaurants and received a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Photography in 2020.
On the small screen Funke was most recently featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table: Noodles, an intimate account of his journey to mastering pasta fatta a mano. In the spring of 2020, the 8-part docu-series Shape of Pasta, produced by Ugly Brother Studio, follows Funke throughout Italy as he works to preserve the rare and obscure traditional pasta shapes of Italy. Tastemade produced a feature-length documentary film titled Funke which recounts his journey as a chef through to the opening of his restaurant Felix in Los Angeles. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2018.
Chef Funke resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Grace. The couple first met at Bucato, Funke’s restaurant in Culver City, California, which permanently closed in 2015. Evan and Grace married in May 2016 in Paso Robles, California.
