EXCLUSIVE: Talk about awkward mealtimes. Award winning chef, restaurateur, TV personality, and cookbook author Tom Colicchio has exited CAA for WME’s East Coast Television and Lifestyle & Branding Group head Jon Rosen. The Top Chef host and producer has owned and operated  the pricey restaurant Craft Los Angeles which has served as the agency’s virtual commissary in the CAA building since 2007. It was CAA who encouraged Tom to open in the Century City location in the first place. And there is hidden access to the restaurant: CAA agents have a special route to come from their offices to Craft without going outside. I’ve confirmed that CAA had one of its patented ‘save meetings’ and thought they’d kept Colicchio in the fold. But after no follow-up, Tom left - hoping to build an empire along the lines of Rachel Ray’s. Colicchio, who just finished judging Bravo’s 9th season of Top Chef, last year co-hosted a charity fundraiser with CAA’s Bryan Lourd at Craft (see photo). Oh well…

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.