fullbiography

michael foley: ' a world according to food '
a career in food and beverage can take a chef into many new and exciting places, shaped in today's world of global challenges my own
direction continues to pursue new thoughts in science and information technology as applied to more healthful living. combined with
experience in food and beverage these make a great formula for opportunities in business offering me new interests for a more depthful
and longer career. I like to think of my career and my future as being a new brand of 'culinary ambassador in food and beverage at every
level from farm and sea to plate, from ideas to companies large and small to consumers, from ethical practices to navigable profits.

My work:

i did not set out to become a chef. In fact, after working from early days in the family business my interest was more sports, namely golf. a
permanent early college injury sidelined that prospect. i have to admit that i probably would never had made the pro tour, but the sport itself
was worth the discipline of practice, practice and more practice. i love golf, mind over matter!

i grew up in a Chicago food and beverage family. best known for my success with what I built with my dad in the Printer's Row Restaurant
Group and being one of the founders of The American Cuisine Movement from the 1980's i have many other interests that into bioscience,
information technology, architecture and travel.

my idea of 'the new architecture in food' is based on an approach i engineered after i found himself looking for a complete modern way of
eating, not a diet but a lifestyle of a chef who likes food to partner with fitness and a food production more to the liking of the earth.

while developing Printer's Row in the early 1980's, i was able to integrate food with design. the area boasted a constant list of talented
architects as part of my client base. Some of these included: Alfred Caldwell, Larry Booth, John Eifler, Paul Hansen, George Larson, and
others who focused on various classical and modern building styles that reshaped Chicago's skyline. it did not take me long before i was
asked to assist in kitchen, office and home designs from some of these design types, all asking for my thoughts on functional space to
meet the form for the kitchen. i pursued drafting at the harrington institute nearby and developed an appreciation for The Prairie School of
Architecture, the Bauhaus before it and Walter Gropius. having been interested in pre med my first year of college i had some science
background. with the design elements i learned, i drafted very similar layering techniques to build flavor in new recipes. soon i had my
own style of food on menus incorporating ideas like umami and satiation into what i saw as essential elements for the body as it functions
during each age of its life.

by the mid 80's i had become a member of The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and had a particular interest in Wright's
Usonian Homes built throughout the world. i traveled to find, inspect and save these technical jewels as well as fund raise for the
Conservancy. Other architects that drew my attention were also from this modernist period notably: James Rose, Walter Burley Griffin,
Neutra, Mies van der Rohe, Schindler, Lautner, Keck and Keck .in each, simplicity was key to function. this focus led me to approach
building on these design principles and layer them in synergy with food as foundation for the diet. i got drawn into the computer and new
ideas emerged from science. suddenly i had an interactive component to understanding recipes in a way different from the traditional. one
example is seeing frequency in food on the computer screen using equipment that can read a plant's vibration or sound waves. it has
drawn an entire new meaning into writing a recipe!

the family business, Ray Foley's Restaurant out of Oak Park, Illinois grew into one of the midwest's largest family owned. my father, Bob
and uncle, Ray partnered with the Pritzker Group to own and operate a new facility in the Pritzker transition to hotels. early on Hyatt had
been a motel chain out of California. this new operation was exciting and expansive and offered a great training ground for my later career
as a chef and businessman. the extensive kitchen was a design in classical training from vegetable to garde manger, fish, poultry, meat,
game, with its own in house bread baking and full pastry shop. plating styles were European with Russian and French platter and plate
service as well as American in the Copper Door, or grill room. the kitchen brigade was complete with stock and sauce stations. the facility
housed three restaurants, room service and private rooms from 12 to 600.

the family also operated a full scale farming operation of over 300 acres in the now suburban area of Bloomingdale, Ilinois. the out
buildings carried lamb, pigs, cattle, chickens, and some guinea hen. the fields were sown with standard feed stock from soy to corn. this
continued until the early 70's when my family sold the farm as the suburban sprawl continued. clearly the advantage of seeing and being
involved with food from soil to plate with soil chemistries and grabbing a sense of the eco system through plant maturation has
enormously impacted my view of how i see the plant and body interact, especially in reference to the EARTH..

as a graduate of Georgetown University with work continued at Cornell University for a Masters of Professional Studies in food and
beverage i worked through kitchens in Washington DC as a student, and continued at a small full service French country house, L'Auberge
du Cochon Rouge in Ithaca, New York. i returned to Chicago in 1977 and met a Master: Jovan Tryboyevic international food legend who
created a high styled bistro with his namesake, Jovan Restaurant. on a date just a year earlier i had experienced a lasting memory of flavor
i still carry to this day in the style of cuisine, light and full of essence taking soup in a sensational watercress veloute i was determined to
work at what became a thirteen year Mobil 5 Star award winning restaurant, Jovan's new Le Perroquet, and was rewarded after first setting
out again to France and Europe to learn more. staying with Georges Blanc. i was able to work with legendary Pierre Orsi in Lyon through a
connection from well known Jean Banchet of Le Francais. the next five years i returned to France, continuing to build friendships. these
culinary and wine routes took me to Alain Chapel, Troisgros, Bernard Constantin at L'arivoire, Jean Paul Lacombe, Giradet in Switzerland,
Eckart Wirtzigman at Aubergine in Munich. each trip brought me to farmlands, breweries, fish and oyster beds, dairy and cheese
sanctuaries with wine regions that enhanced my working knowledge for pairing origins of flavors from herbs, spices, coffee and teas.

for twelve years, i continued each year to expand my knowledge of countries also working with the United States Meat Export Boards in
Asia and Southeast Asia, Japan and more visiting production areas, talking to companies, learning from consumers internationally. with
over 30 countries visited, i see resourceful purposeful travel as a key to understanding the global reaches of food, providing intuitive
insights for present and future projects, especially my NEW ARCHITECTURE OF FOOD.

designing everyday body fit, edible luxury from simple ingredients plant based
one of America's first celebrity chefs highlighted in the national series ' Great Chefs' www.greatchefs.com
representing the United States as a 'culinary ambassador' of food and beverage throughout the world
early pioneer of the American Cooking Movement
one of the first James Beard Award Winners
one of the founders of the Chicago Green City Market and Chicago Farmer's Market System
25 years of four star restaurant experience
United States White House American Achievement award
named one of America's Top Chefs by Food and Wine Magazine
owned and operated 5 restaurants, two winery/vineyards, an organic farm
restaurants, hotels, retail, food service, grocery and commissary operations, product development, manufacturing, distribution
consulting to brand and rebrand Fortune 500, national, regional and local companies
journalist history with Sun Times, freelance, Chicago Gardenland, Hotel Food and Beverage Magazine
developed network of local, national and international 'culinary capital' in the food and beverage market
created 'cell cuisine 2011' tn the 'New Architecture of Food' , a body biology connect recipe base
see his further work at www.vegetablealchemy.com as he puts 'form and function' into his new style of recipe
platform is ' fit food from foley ' : concentrating on designing recipes that offer smart food balance for the body no matter the age