Exclusive | Windows on the Worlds only surviving chef reflects on 9/11 attacks that forever changed his life and career: It will always be with me

He’s got a window on the past.Star chef Michael Lomonaco had spent 25 years running Windows on the World, the celebrated restaurant nestled high in the Twin Towers.

But on the morning of September 11, 2001, the Brooklynite narrowly avoided tragedy when an issue with his eyeglasses prompted him to head to LensCrafters instead of to his kitchen on the 106th floor of the North Tower.By the time his vision was restored, his heart had shattered — 79 of his colleagues tragically died in the historic terrorist attack.25 years later, Chef Lomonaco is revisiting the restaurant that changed his life with the documentary “Top Of The World,” which debuts this week on CNN.“Windows on the World is something I’ve always carried with me,” Lomonaco told The Post.

Now at the helm of Midtown’s ultra-buzzy Brasserie Cognac Américain, Lomonaco says he grapples with both survivor’s guilt and the need to “excel” in order to honor those who were lost in the disaster.“It’s been my personal mantra to do the work my colleagues were doing when they lost their lives,” he said.That means creating gorgeous food for curious diners that demand excellence above all else — but also honoring the legacy of Windows on the World, a fine dining institution that was at the forefront of trends like local ingredients and urban fusion food that still influence New York’s grub hubs today.“Windows [on the World] was unique in its time,” Lomonaco told the Post, noting that it turned the Twin Towers from a gleaming office building into a social hub for the city’s power players as well as its awestruck tourists.

First opened in 1976 by renegade restaurateur Joseph Baum, the 50,000-square-foot space spanned two floors and pioneered the gourmet international fusion craze of the 1970s and 1980s.The staff’s military precision and the space’s over-the-top decor helped make it a “theater” for dining, according to Kevin Zraly, the restaurant’s longtime cellar master.

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