Michelle Mah

Michelle Mah is an American chef. She is the director of operations for The Slanted Door Group in San Francisco, California. She was previously the chef de cuisine at The Slanted Door, consulting chef at The Brixton, and executive chef at Midi.

Early life Michelle Mah was born in 1975 in Seoul, South Korea. At age three, she moved with her family to San Dimas, California. Her mother, grandmother, and father all cooked at home.

Career Mah's culinary experience began at Café Japengo in San Diego under chef Amiko Gubbins, who inspired her to enroll in the nearby College of Food, where she graduated with an associate degree in Occupational Studies. She continued her education at California Culinary Academy (CCA) in San Francisco. She stayed in San Francisco and worked at Moose's as a pantry cook and later completed her externship for CCA at Turtle Bay resort in Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mah told Nation's Restaurant News that she studied and researched different recipes before she felt comfortable developing her own vision for Ponzu which incorporated some Korean cuisine. The Today Show described her approach to Asian cuisine as what she calls "Asia without a map." In 2008, she left Ponzu to join Joie de Vivre's new restaurant Midi in San Francisco's theatre district as executive chef. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Mah's recipes at the restaurant, this time based on European cuisine, "creates a fantasy voyage." She left Midi in 2010 to "take the opportunity to remember why I love cooking in the first place" and said she was interested in working at an independent restaurant or starting one of her own.

Mah worked as a consulting chef at the Brixton in 2010. She then moved to The Slanted Door in 2012, where she served as chef de cuisine. In 2016, she transitioned into the role of Director of Operations for the Slanted Door Group, overseeing restaurant operations across the organization.

Awards "Rising Star Chef" (2006) by the San Francisco Chronicle