Michael Chang
Chef & Co-Owner, Foray
Carmel, California -
Chef Michael Chang was born in the Northeast to immigrant parents that had dreams of him becoming a ‘doctor, engineer, lawyer or banker’. He stayed on that course for as long as he could bear it, even starting a graduate degree in Economics at the London School of Economics. However, eventually Michael realized that his true passion did not lie within those fields, but rather in the multi-course dinner parties that he hosted weekly for friends throughout college. After deciding to take a sabbatical from LSE, he immediately enrolled at the French Culinary Institute in Soho, New York. Within the first week of classes at culinary school, he knew that his career would be in the food industry.
After graduating from FCI in 2012, Michael moved to Denver for the best chance of advancing his career while the local restaurant industry was beginning to flourish. He managed and/or opened several of the city’s top restaurants, including Bittersweet, Acorn, Il Posto and Beatrice & Woodsley. After securing investment to open his own restaurant with his wife and business partner Caroline, they chose to relocate to Carmel-by-the-Sea for proximity to world-class produce in the Salinas Valley, fresh seafood from Monterey Bay and award-winning wines from California.
Chef Michael’s cooking philosophy is simple: search high and low for the best local ingredients, contemplate the most appropriate preparation techniques and present them artistically and minimally.
Michael & Caroline have finally reached the homestretch in opening Foray in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The restaurant takes diners on a food foray focusing on wild foraged ingredients from the West Coast. Frequently, the couple has help from their dog Falco, a trained truffle hunter that’s made it to the finals of the North American Truffle Dog Championship in back-to-back years. After a morning spent in the woods, the team at Foray prepare fine dining coastal California cuisine with expertly paired wines and craft cocktails.
