Food Traveler Magazine Winter 2017 | Page 80

T
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Chef
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spotlight
Everyone loves a great meal, but
several things come to mind in
order to consider a simple dinner
to be an actual dining experience.
These chefs are serving up just
that, by paying attention to every-
thing from the design of your nap-
kin, to the sauce that tops your
entrée. There is no detail left to the
wind, no leaf untouched, no lid left
closed, when it comes to the ex-
pertise and culinary passion that
chefs Michael Beckman and John
Sundstrom have.
Chef Michael Beckman is defi-
nitely a chef worthy of the spot-
light. Beckman is a SoCal native
and one of the fresh faces of the
blossoming creativity of the culi-
nary world. Beckman became in-
terested in this line of work while
he was a student at the Univer-
sity of San Francisco. After study-
ing for years in several
front-of-the-house
programs,
Beckman earned his Bachelor’s
Degree and headed out in
search of new culinary ventures.
Focusing on the French style of cook-
ing, Beckman found himself in Geneva,
Switzerland, where he honed in on his
sushi skills, and also spent two years
cooking in a town center bistro. After
getting his foot in the door, he set out
to accomplish a life-long goal: to be a
part of a 3 Michelin Star restaurant. For
the next two years, he worked under
the wings of several highly-acclaimed
Meilleur Oeuvriers de France instruc-
tors, where he served as an appren-
tice, and eventually got to cook under
well-known chef Thomas Kellermann.