Chef Jason Cichonski is one of Philadelphia’s brightest rising star chefs. His creative, boundary-pushing presentations at his venerated Queen Village restaurant, Ela, have earned him accolades from press and public alike. Now he adds relaxed, thoughtful comfort food to his repertoire with his down-to-earth bar, The Gaslight.

Jason Cichonski honed his cooking craft serving as executive chef of Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel when he was just 24 years old. During his tenure, Lacroix was one of the city’s few to be honored with “Four Bells: Superior” status by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s revered restaurant critic, Craig LaBan. Before his success at Lacroix, Cichonski worked in other highly praised kitchens, including the Pluckemin Inn, a contemporary American restaurant in Bedminster, NJ and Moonlight, a progressive American restaurant in New Hope, PA. Most recently, Cichonski had the opportunity to further showcase and refine his cooking skills as a contestant on the popular Bravo TV cooking competition, Top Chef.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, Chef Cichonski is a graduate of University City’s The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. Today, he resides in Philadelphia and can nearly always be found in the kitchens of Ela or The Gaslight