Meet Chef Dio

History

Bill Bonadio Jr (Chef Dio) is a third generation restaurateur starting in the restaurant business at the early age of 8 years old. He worked at all of his father’s restaurants (there were several) where he learned his basic skills of sanitation, basic cooking skills, quality over price, and the three ingredients for a successful restaurant business. NO, NOT LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!!!!QUALITY, CONSISTANCY AND SERVICE!!! Word of mouth is still the best advertising in the world. Never forget who is paying whom! The customer may never be always right but he needs to think you think so.

He attended John Marshall High School and took the Food Management course that was offered there and later qualified for a scholarship offered by the Oklahoma Restaurant Association to attend OSU in the Hotel and Restaurant School.

In 1979 Chef Dio opened his first Restaurant, “Dio’s Original Fried Pizza”. Shortly after opening he realized there were 5 pizza restaurants within a square mile. That’s when Bill’s father said “we should change it to an Italian restaurant”. So,  Bill and his father became partners and Bill changed the name to Papa Dio’s in honor of his dad who brought most of the recipes to the table and they worked together till 1988 when Bill bought out his dad.

Bill opened a second restaurant in Edmond in 1992 which he closed three years later. In 1996 Bill went into partnership with Bill Mathis and opened the “Wine Bar” a fine dining restaurant next to the May Avenue location making a casual and fine dining concept restaurant all in one location. Chef Dio offered wine diners and special food events in this new and exciting concept. In the following years,  Papa Dio’s has won many awards for best Italian food and multiple awards from the Wine Spectator for its extensive wine list.

In 2019, just after the loss of his son, Chef Dio sold Papa Dio’s to his sister,  Candace Gideo,  who operates Papa Dio’s at the time of this writing. Since his other three business ventures                  — Diocars.com (a kit car company), Papa Dio’s thick red sauce in a jar sold at the grocery store, and classic car Appraisals — were not enough to keep him busy at 65 he built and opened “What’s Cooking with Chef Dio,” A Foodaria located at 1132 West Britton Road in Oklahoma City. There he offers Chef’s Dinners, cooking classes and a small special events venue. He still sells his kit cars, sells his sauce in the store (and at the Foodaria) and appraises classic cars. From the kitchen to the show room to the shop….it’s all under one roof.