Michael Collantes

Training at Winter Park High School set Michael Collantes on a path that would later loop back to the city in which he now cooks. That early grounding in Winter Park remains part of the record: a local beginning that now shows up in the way Soseki reads its place through product and technique. Since 2021, Michael has held the role of chef and co-owner of Soseki, and the restaurant’s approach is defined by discipline in execution and room for personality in the finish. The structure is omakase, but the expression is local Florida produce filtered through Japanese technique, with the chef guiding the meal course by course.

Scale is part of the craft at Soseki, but so is control over how that scale feels at the table. “Coming from 10- to 30-seat restaurants, this is my big restaurant,” Michael Collantes says, naming the shift from small rooms to a larger operation without letting go of the habits that make tight service work. The point is not to turn the room into something grander for its own sake. “But we still want intimacy. We want storytelling.”

That places the work squarely in the language of sequencing, pacing, and direct communication between kitchen and diner. Another line points to the operating principle behind the menu and service: “It’s about staying open, curious, and excited no matter how much we’ve learned.” For a chef’s-choice format, that kind of openness matters. It keeps the meal responsive rather than fixed, and it leaves space for the room to feel guided rather than imposed on. At Soseki, the craft is in keeping the experience personal while allowing it to move with each service.

Michael Collantes' honors include Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand (2024) and Michelin Guide star (2022).