After an impossibly blissful swirl of events, she moved to New York in the spring of 2013. For six months, Michelle studied Classic Culinary Arts at the French Culinary Institute in SoHo. You know she had the time of her life because pounds of butter were consumed, pounds of fat were happily gained, and a lot of shopping was done down that one block of Broadway.
| L: Mom with Michelle; R: Chef Henri with Michelle (super-wonderful-awesome dad behind the camera) |
After graduating, Michelle headed to Betony in Midtown, which had just been given its 3 Times stars. Each day was its own challenge, and once, she had to run to the bathroom to cry it out. But of course, it was the most learning she'd ever done and she wouldn't trade it for the world. She got to assist Chef Bryce at legendary New York institutions like DeGustibus, City Harvest's Bid Against Hunger and a private dinner at the James Beard House. A number of notable events took place during the months to follow: the Betony team won a cool award from Esquire, was featured on TV, nominated for a James Beard award, and stayed in the kitchen until 3am scrubbing oysters. (Fun fact: Betony won its first Michelin star in 2014.) The team had the honor of cooking for Thomas Keller, Wylie Dufresne, Wolfgang Puck, Daniel Boulud, Hugh Acheson, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Jessica Parker and Oprah Winfrey, to name a few. (Michelle may or may not have been garnishing SJP's ravioli with a quiet girlish giggle, but such evidence is nowhere to be found.)
| From top-left, clockwise: chicken liver mousse plated for Chef T.K., dinner team with Puck and Boulud, the team at the James Beard House, Food Arts photo with a lurking Michelle |
After an uncomfortably long medical leave, Michelle left Betony much earlier than she'd originally planned. But things worked out, as they usually do, and somehow she found herself at the doors of the Food Network Office. You can read about it here. Before moving back home to fully recover, she also had the privilege of working in the test kitchen at Saveur Magazine.
Michelle defines her dream job as "something food-related in which creativity is expressed through more than one outlet."
Out of Thyme is her labor of love, her creative outlet, her collection of recipes, delightfully funny stories and life-changing subway epiphanies.
...Fine, it's really just a place where she can gush about whatever the hell she wants and assume she has a listening audience.
So thank you,
for listening.
