Michele Stueven
In 1979, young buck Michael McCarty took over the rowdy Brigadoon in Santa Monica and transformed it into ground zero of the California Cuisine movement. Michael’s Santa Monica launched the careers of culinary giants like Jonathan Waxman and Nancy Silverton and was the incubator for chefs like Brian Boornemann, Miles Thompson and Brooke Williamson.
No less than 17 chefs came together on Sunday to celebrate 45 years of Michael’s Santa Monica at the restaurant that featured many of the celebrated chefs who have cooked there over the years, blazing new paths for the restaurant and California cuisine.
Tasting stations lined the restaurant’s walls and its legendary patio, serving as the legendary lunch haunt for writers like Dominick Dunne and Joan Didion. The menu featured both classics from the restaurant’s storied history, as well as new creations from the chefs inspired by their time at Michael’s. Proceeds went to benefit No Kid Hungry, the organization dedicated to eradicating childhood hunger.
Jonathan Waxman serves up Dungeness crab pasta with asparagus (Michele Stueven)
Waxman served Dungeness crab pasta with asparagus, Williamson lined up colorful Peruvian scallop ceviche, and Boornemann butchered a whole tuna on site for his signature tuna tartare toast made famous at his nearby Crudo e Nudo. Culinary mad scientist Thompson, who will soon open a brick-and-mortar version of his Baby Bistro pop-up in Echo Park, took Peads & Barnetts pork collar coppa and brined it for seven days with water, salt, buckwheat honey, brown sugar, black peppercorns, fennel seeds, sliced lemons and pink salt. After a week, it was drained, dried, smoked over hickory, and finally wrapped around slightly crunchy anchovy pickled zucchini.
Before McCarty helped launch the Santa Monica Farmers Market in 1981, he flew fresh products in from around the state, inspired by the local produce he discovered as a 16-year-old junior high school student visiting Brittany.
“Being here is like coming home,” celebrity chef and prolific restaurateur Waxman, who spent five years at Michael’s in the early days, told L.A. Weekly. “I cut my teeth here. We were so stupid back then that we didn’t know anything, not even how to keep our knives sharp. It was all smoke and mirrors until we figured it out. There was a time when we were asked to cater the opening of the Jordan Winery. Tom Jordan gave me an airplane and told me to fly around California to pick up food for two dinners. I stopped in Santa Barbara for uni and Catalina lobsters, fava beans and asparagus in Salinas, and salmon from San Francisco. It wasn’t until I got back to the winery with an airplane full of food that I figured out what I would serve. So I cooked lunch and we decided what I would cook for dinner. It wasn’t exactly PC, but it sure was fun to get a plane to fly around California and shop for food.”
Brooke Williamson with Peruvian scallop ceviche (Michele Stueven)
A native Angelena, Williamson started in McCarty’s kitchen at the tender age of 19 as a sous chef and has gone on to open Playa Provisions and become a Food Network darling. She has participated in several of Michael’s anniversary events including the 20th anniversary.
“It’s always great to be reminded of the pedigree that came out of this restaurant,” she said stationed next to chef Sang Yoon, who was serving Tom Kha Kai custard and chicken crunchy mushrooms. “To have a station at this event is an honor. Michael was doing something here that nobody else was, he was an innovator of California cuisine and started a revolution in the culinary industry. It was a mashup of traditional French cuisine and all the bounty that California has to offer.”
Drawing from the knowledge he gathered from his time in Brittany, the sourcing of local ingredients left a lasting impression on McCarty’s psyche and taste buds. He credits the love of the craft, constant learning, and embracing evolution with the longevity of Michael’s Santa Monica.
Chef Miles Thompson will soon open Baby Bistro in Echo Park (Michele Stueven)
“When I visited Brittany as a 16-year-old junior in high school, I learned a whole new culture,” said McCarty as he greeted every guest who entered the party. “Being a chef was a career and restaurants were part of the map. I knew then this was what I wanted to do. Early on, I learned that this was more of an education institution and explained to chefs that this was like a school and you come in as a freshman. I developed this system in the kitchen for training. You’re learning from the guy on your right and you’re teaching the guy on your left. Everybody — including 10 chefs that have already retired — all wanted to be here.”
So what’s the pixie dust that has allowed Michael’s to survive a pandemic and dramatic changes in the restaurant industry landscape?
“When it comes down to it, being very young and free, learning how to evolve, adapt, and most of all, never hold a grudge,” he said.
Go behind the scenes in our gallery, with photographs from Anne Fishbein.
Tuna tartare toast from former Michael’s chef Brian Boornemann (Michele Stueven)
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