 | This article needs to be updated.(July 2024) |
Michelle Mah | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 14, 1975 Seoul, Korea |
| Education | University of California The College of Food in San Diego California Culinary Academy |
| Culinary career | |
| Cooking style | California Asian |
Previous restaurant(s)
| |
Michelle Mah is the director of operations for The Slanted Door Group in San Francisco, California. [1] She was previously the chef de cuisine at The Slanted Door, [2] consulting chef at The Brixton, [3] and executive chef at Midi. [4]
Michelle Mah was born in 1975 Seoul, Korea and moved with her family to San Dimas, California at the age of three. [5] Her mother, grandmother, and father all cooked at home. [6] In 1997, she earned her B.A. in Ethnic Studies and a minor in General Literature from University of California, San Diego. [7]
Mah's culinary experience began at Café Japengo in San Diego under chef Amiko Gubbins, who inspired her to enroll in the nearby College of Food, where she graduated with an associate degree in Occupational Studies. [8] She continued her education at California Culinary Academy (CCA) in San Francisco. [2] [9] She stayed in San Francisco and worked at Moose's as a pantry cook and later completed her externship for CCA at Turtle Bay resort in Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands. [7] When she returned, she worked as a sous chef at Paul Arenstam's Belon and later at the Grand Café, where Arenstam was executive chef. [8] When she was offered a position as executive chef at Kimpton's Ponzu, an upscale Asian restaurant, Arenstam was very supportive and assured her she was ready for the challenge, regardless of her fears. [8]
In 2005, she accepted the role and was named one of San Francisco Chronicle's "Rising Star Chefs" of 2006 along with Corey Lee of French Laundry and Mike Yakura of Le Colonial. [10] [11] Mah told Nation's Restaurant News that she studied and researched different recipes before she felt comfortable developing her own vision for Ponzu which incorporated some Korean cuisine. [6] The Today Show described her approach to Asian cuisine as what she calls "Asia without a map." [12] In 2008, she left Ponzu to join Joie de Vivre's new restaurant Midi in San Francisco's theatre district as executive chef. [6] [13] [14] The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Mah's recipes at the restaurant, this time based on European cuisine, "creates a fantasy voyage." [15] She left Midi in 2010 to "take the opportunity to remember why I love cooking in the first place" and said she was interested in working at an independent restaurant or starting one of her own. [16]
Mah worked as a consulting chef at the Brixton in 2010 [3] and in 2011 joined Charles Phan's Slanted Door Group to head up Wo Hing's General Store, a Southern Chinese street food-inspired restaurant. [17] [18] [19] She transferred to Phan's The Slanted Door in 2012 and headed the kitchen as the chef de cuisine. [20] In 2016, she transitioned into the role of Director of Operations. [1]
In 2016, she was part of an event in coordination with the Asian Art Museum when the "meat shaped stone" was on display. Chefs, including Mah, created unique pork-belly recipes inspired by the rock at their restaurants. [21] She also reviews and recommends on dining app Chefsfeed. [1]
Original Joe's is a local chain of restaurants in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco and the Westlake neighborhood of Daly City. They serve a wide variety of foods, mostly Italian-American cuisine with some mainstream American favorites. Their "signature" dishes include Joe's Special, Chicken Parmigiana, the Joe's Famous Hamburger Sandwich and a variety of steaks and chops.
Ron Siegel is an American chef who formerly worked in San Francisco. In August 2012, it was announced he was joining San Francisco restaurant, Michael Mina, as executive chef. He had been Chef of the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, taking over for Chef Sylvain Portray in 2004. Siegel is perhaps best known for his 1998 appearance on Iron Chef, becoming the first ever U.S. citizen to win in Kitchen Stadium. His cooking style is known for blending haute French cuisine with subtle Japanese touches.
Traci Des Jardins is an American chef and restaurateur who previously owned Jardinière, a French influenced California fine-dining restaurant in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, California.
The California Culinary Academy (CCA) was a for-profit school, and an affiliate of Le Cordon Bleu located in San Francisco, California. Danielle Carlisle established the school in 1977 to train chefs using the European education model. The original location on the corner of Fremont and Howard Street in the South of Market area of San Francisco, was located in the remodeled, top-floor, cafeteria in the Del Monte headquarters. The academy trained more than 15,000 people for restaurant careers through its 30-week baking and pastry chef program and 16-month culinary arts degree program. It was purchased by Career Education Corporation in 1999.
Timothy Hollingsworth is an American chef. In 2012, he left his post as Chef de Cuisine at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry and moved to Los Angeles, where he opened Otium. He has won multiple awards throughout his career, including the 2010 James Beard Foundation's Rising Chef of the Year Award, the 2010 San Francisco Chronicle Rising Star Chef, and the 2009 Bocuse d'Or, where he placed sixth. He was the winner of the 2018 cooking competition The Final Table.
Pascal Rigo is a French Restaurateur who owns a small "empire" of boulangeries, restaurants, and wholesale and retail bakeries in San Francisco and Mill Valley, California, that operate as La Boulangerie de San Francisco, Bay Bread, La Boulange, and (formerly) Cortez, Chez Nous, Gallette, and others.
Sam Wo is a Chinese restaurant located in San Francisco, California. The restaurant's first location on 813 Washington Street was famous for being a venerable mainstay in the local Chinatown area, having been in the same location since 1912. Sam Wo gained notoriety in the 1960’s for being the employer of Edsel Ford Fung, who was known locally as the "world's rudest waiter". The restaurant was closed in 2012 due to safety concerns, and reopened in 2015 on nearby Clay Street.
Melissa Perello is an American chef, she is best known for holding a Michelin star at her restaurant Frances in San Francisco. She had previously won a star at restaurant Fifth Floor, and has won awards from both Chronicles and Food & Wine magazines.
Anthony Felix Gemignani is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. In 2009, Gemignani opened Tony's Pizza Napoletana in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Gemignani is a pizzaiolo and chef, having won 13 world titles in pizza making and opening numerous restaurants. He has appeared on multiple reality television series including Food Network Challenge, Bar Rescue on Spike TV, as well as on The Travel Channel and CNN.
Boulevard is a New American fine dining restaurant located in San Francisco, California.
Justine Kelly is a chef in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has appeared on Iron Chef America, served as the chef de cuisine at the Slanted Door, and is currently the master chef for Sun Basket.
Quince is a restaurant in the Jackson Square neighborhood in San Francisco, California. Opened in 2003 by chef Michael Tusk and his wife, Lindsay, in Pacific Heights, the restaurant has been located in Jackson Square since 2009. A sister restaurant, Cotogna, opened next door in 2011.
Gabriel Rucker is an American chef and owner of the restaurants Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro, in Portland, Oregon. In 2018, he opened his third restaurant—Canard, next door to Le Pigeon, which offers "French bar food".
Joyce Goldstein is an American chef and two-time James Beard Foundation Award winner. She ran the influential San Francisco-based restaurant Square One between 1984 and 1996.
Jū-Ni is an Omakase-style sushi restaurant located at 1335 Fulton Street in San Francisco, California founded by Geoffrey Lee and Tan Truong. It was Michelin-starred in 2017, and lost the star in 2022.
State Bird Provisions is a San Francisco restaurant founded by chef-owners Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski.
Sarah Kirnon is a West Indian chef. Kirnon owned and operated Miss Ollie's, an Afro-Caribbean restaurant in Oakland, California, from 2012 until 2019, when she announced she would close the restaurant to reopen the space as a non-profit incubator for Black chefs, artists, musicians and other creators.
Sara Hauman is an American chef most known for competing on the television series Top Chef: Portland. She is a two-time James Beard Rising Star semi-finalist. She also received the Eater Young Gun 2015 award.
Charles Phan is an American chef, cookbook author, and restaurateur. He is the executive chef and founder of "The Slanted Door" restaurant in San Francisco, California and The Slanted Door Group of restaurants. He has published two cookbooks on Vietnamese cuisine.
Californios is a Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco, California, serving Mexican cuisine. Its head chef is Val M. Cantu, one of the restaurant's co-owners. Californios earned its first Michelin star in 2015 and its second in 2017, becoming the first US restaurant serving Mexican cuisine to earn two Michelin stars. Its original Mission District location closed in 2020. The restaurant relocated to the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood in early 2021.