Michael A. Glissman
Santa Rosa, CA
AOS Culinary Arts 1992
Since graduating from NECI I moved to Northern California wine country. I was employed as a line cook at the Auberge du Soleil under Chef David Hale. I then worked at Jan Birnbaum's Catahoula for 4+ years in Calistoga as a brick oven cook and then cross trained in pastry and became the pastry chef. I was next the opening chef at MacArthur Place Inn and Spa in Sonoma and then the sous chef/pastry chef at Syrah Bistro in Santa Rosa. I moved on to be Pastry Chef of Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg. And worked a couple years front of the house and bartender at McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Brasserie in Santa Rosa. I then opened Palate Teasers Personal Chef Service and worked for a Sonoma County private residence for 4 years.
Currently I am Pastry Chef at Michael Chiarello's Bottega Restaurant of Napa Valley. I have done some consulting on restaurant openings at Sazerac in Seattle, WA and Epic Roasthouse in San Francisco, CA. I attended a Valrhona workshop in Tain l'Hermitage, France. I have been published in local newspapers, Food Arts, and have upcoming articles in Food & Wine and Wine Spectator. Through these job opportunities I have had stagieres and the chance to work with many great chefs (including Sherry Yard at Spago, Nancy Silverton at Campanile, Paul Prudhomme, Todd English, David Burke, Rick Moonen, Lidia Bastianich).
Remembering NECI: I have great pride in being a New England Culinary Institute alumni. In the industry I hear consistent compliments about NECI students more than other schools but there are fewer of us out there so the name seems a little foreign to many kitchens. The small student to teacher ratio is a great benefit.
Working in older kitchens like Elm Street, La Brioche and Tubb's offered a realistic day to day experience of the restaurants operations. My internships were intense and I got yelled at, pans thrown at me and worked a lot. Slowly you begin to catch your footing in such a fast paced environment and profession and begin to build self confidence, kitchen awareness, speed and a better palate. Through time you realize that culinary school is where you lay a foundation for your culinary career. You have a lot of learning, tasting, hours, research, experimentation and understanding that have to be developed.
NECI was very hospitable and taught me more than cooking but how to work clean, organized and with respect towards the chef and the kitchen work place. Vermont is a beautiful scenic state that offered organic farm-to-table foods before it was a national movement. It may have been a bit quiet but autumnal backroads and sugar shacks offered great outings when you had a little time to spend out of the kitchen.