I first arrived in Santa Barbara in July 0f 1981. I had just returned from a three-year European work experience to further my training as a chef. Initially, I traveled to France, first Paris, then to Monaco (where I worked for a week at an American Hotel, Lowe's Monte Carlo Hotel) and then on to a small town outside of Lyon, Loyette. There I worked at a one-starred Michelin restaurant called La Terrasse for gratis. Chef Gerard Antonin as very generous and kind to us. He even housed us in his country estate in nearby Baron. The time there was well spent learning French-country style cuisine. Trips to the Lyon farmer’s market introduced me to the great European food products.
In the fall of 1978, I went to London to assume a position at Le Gavroche, Britain's first three-starred Michel restaurant.
I had intended to stay only a year at Le Gavroche as I had my wife and twelve-month-old child with me at the time.
After two months, Chef-Owner Albert Roux asked me and my family to dine with him at his home. After dinner, he suggested that he would like to put me through their full training program, prompt me to sous chef and upon return to the states, back me in a restaurant venture in America. How could I refuse!
I ended up working for the Roux’s for three years. During that time they sent me to Paris to train at Le Pres Catalan, on to Chapel’s Restaurant in Mionnay and then the famed Restaurant Troisgros. It was like finishing school and has been a reservoir of ideas ever since.
That three-star journey sojourn was the foundation and mindset I brought back to the States in 1981.
My search for a chef position brought me to Santa Barbara to take on the chef de cuisine post at a popular restaurant called The Olive Mill Bistro. Owner Paul Vercammen recruited me to head up and modernization of their menu offerings. Paul realized that he needed to upgrade the standards at the Bistro. Places like Penelope’s with chef John Downey and Norbert’s operated by chef Norbert Schultz were rocking the culinary boat with modern California-French style cuisine.
I must say that I was shocked at the food standards at the bistro. Mind you, I was fresh from a three-starred Michelin experience. Mary, my wife at the time, nearly pushed me out the door to take the position.
Within two months at the Olive Mill Bistro, I was making my imprint on the menu and the clients and press began to notice. Elmer Dills, a tv restaurant reviews featured the Bistro on his LA-based TV show. Later Julia Child started to dine there and called me out to the dining room to meet. She and her husband Paul Child were entertaining winemaker Robert Mondavi and his wife. I recall that I had prepared a local lobster with a lobster infused bearnaise sauce. For years thereafter Mondavi would comment on that dish.
I had the privilege of being around the TV production of Dinner at Julia’s, Julia Child’s show that was produced in Santa Barbara. For one episode, I took her out hunting local chanterelles. Here comment off-camera was, “A blow against fungaphobia.”
If you look carefully at this video you will see a much younger Michael Hutchings as a guest on Dinner at Julia's cooking show.
My mandate from Albert Roux was to search for a restaurant location in America. That search took us from the Hotel Pierre in New York to Austin Texas to Carmel California. We made a few attempts at "deals" but nothing came to fruition.
As luck would have it, Penelope’s restaurant in Santa Barbara came on the market in the Spring of 1984. We came to an agreement with the owner, Penelope Williams, and opened Michael’s Waterside in September. We ran the restaurant for ten years too much acclaim. The press accolades fill volumes. We had press coverage from Swiss magazines to Japanese Videos and glowing reviews in Gourmet Magazine as well as the DIRONA award. Cooking in paradise was fueled by an abundance of great products from our local farms and sea. Cultured abalone became my signature dish along with Chef Albert's Soufflé Suissesse
When I sold Michael's Waterside in 1993, I took over food operations at the Santa Barbara Polo Club. I ran that for several seasons and can tell you how to take care of a grassy field of play!
In 1995, chef Albert Roux invited me to head up a culinary team at the Nations Bank headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. That bank is now Bank fo America. There I gained experience in Southern food specialties like shrimp and grits, blue crab cakes and Brunswick stew. Over the ensuing few years I hung my toque at a private club in Charlotte, high volume catering at the Panther Football Stadium, chef positions in Palm Springs at St. James, Pacifica and Kaiser Grill restaurants.
As fate would have it, Santa Barbara called me back when my dear friend Chef James Sly contacted me to suggest I that apply for a chef position at the Birnham Wood Golf Club. I was hired and after a year, decided to do upscale catering in Santa Barbara and did so up until deciding to retire this year. It has been a pleasure serving the food needs in Santa Barbara and environs.
After some nearly 40 years in Santa Barbara, myself and pastry-chef wife Christine Dahl are retiring and relocating to Charleston, South Carolina. I have two of my five adult children in the area and six of my fourteen grandkids. We have purchased a lovely home on an estuarial lagoon full of birds and other wildlife (Reminds me of the Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara where my restaurant was located). In fact, we can catch shrimp and local crab from our back porch! I look forward to masting the Southern BBQ and exploring the food tradition of the Low Country.
We plan on still being active in the food community as Charleston is noted as a food lovers city. My son-in-law, Clint Wood, manages a country club and has already planned for me to do a Julia Child tribute dinner and for my pastry-chef wife Christine to upgrade their dessert menu. We look forward to exploring the east coast and lots of grandkid time! Proximity to Europe means we will be off to Spain, France, and Italy on cultural and culinary journeys.
As an odd twist of fate, one of my clients, The Ensemble Theater, is taking a group to Charleston in the spring to attend the Spoleto Festival. We plan to connect and I will regal them with local food specialties!
Current plans are to continue the production of my popular cooking show, The Santa Barbara Chef. My previous hit show, The Inn Crowd, aired with over 100 episodes featuring my food stylings and local celebrities.
The Santa Barbara Chef currently airs on the local Cox cable as well as the Long Beach, Orange County, San Diego, and Palm Springs areas. We will also be on Amazon Prime in March.
Some of my high points over my career as a chef include the numerous charities we have been able to support. I started participating in The Taste of the Town when it started in 1981. We have supported The Girls Inc. Club, Teddy Bear Foundation, Braille Institute, The Girls and Boys Club, Carpinteria Arts Center, Camarata Pacifica, The Music Academy of the West, Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, Mental Health Association, Santa Barbara Zoo Foundation, Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Humane Society, Assistance League, Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, and Museum of Natural History to name a few.
We will miss our adopted hometown. Santa Barbara has been a wonderful place to raise a family, build a career and enjoy the unique lifestyle on the central coast.
Thank you, Santa Barbara.
Bon Appetite and Bonne Vie
Chefs (retired) Michael Hutchings and Christine Dahl
