Waldy Malouf graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1975 having won First Prize in that year's Carras Culinary Competition. His extensive professional experience includes affiliations with The Four Seasons, La Côte Basque, the St. Regis Hotel, La Cremaillere (Banksville, NY), the Hudson River Club, and The Rainbow Room.

Beginning at La Cremaillere, Waldy developed a signature cuisine that presented the culinary riches of New York State's Hudson River Valley, a subject he explored to great acclaim in his first book, THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY COOKBOOK: A Leading American Chef Savors the Region's Bounty (Addison-Wesley, 1995). The book, nominated for a Julia Child Cookbook Award by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, won high praise from The New York Times, which reviewed it on two separate occasions, naming it one of the year's "Ten Best" in "The Sunday Book Review." Bon Appetit, Gourmet and The Daily News also lauded the work, which was released in paperback by Harvard Common Press and optioned by Book-of-the-Month-Club. Waldy is currently working on his second book, MAGNIFICENT MEATS, to be published in 2000.