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About Michael
Born in 1962 and raised in the central California community of Turlock, Michael
lived in a style close to his family's Calabrian roots in southern Italy.
He knew early that he wanted to be a chef and began apprenticing in restaurants
at age 14. In 1985, just a few years after graduating from The Culinary Institute
of America in Hyde Park, NY, Michael was named Chef of the Year by Food
and Wine Magazine.
Michael has consistently sought out and supported small farmers and producers
who share his passion for ingredients of extraordinary quality. When he arrived
in Napa Valley in 1986 to become the opening chef of Tra Vigne Restaurant,
he immediately set out to meet local producers. "At that time, I could not
buy the quality of some ingredients that I needed, so I decided to make them
myself," says Michael. Those ingredients formed the basis for the authentic,
regional style of cooking that characterized Tra Vigne's food.
Thus began a parade of ingredients: fresh mozzarella, home-cured sausages
and prosciutto, local olive oil, olives, and bread among them. Customer demand
for the breads led Michael to found the successful, San Francisco-based PANoRAMA
Baking Co. His experiments with infusing olive oil with intense flavors,
such as basil and roasted garlic, led him to found the Consorzio line of
specialty products. Almost single-handedly, Consorzio created the flavored
olive oil trend.
In addition to Tra Vigne, he has opened Tomatina and Bistecca, two restaurants
with plans to expand nationally, Caffe Museo in the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art, and Bump's and Ajax Tavern in Aspen.
Michael's best-selling cookbook, The
Tra Vigne Cookbook, Seasons in the California Wine Country (Chronicle
Books), serves as the basis for his Season by Season television cooking show
that begins to air on PBS stations May 6, 2000. He is also the author of
Flavored Oils, 50 Recipes for Cooking
with Infused Oils and Flavored
Vinegars: 50 Recipes for Cooking with Infused Vinegars (both from
Chronicle Books). |
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