Michael Santoro

The Path

Training at Cleveland State University and Johnson & Wales University gave Santoro the academic base that fed into a run of kitchens across the United States and abroad. The early positions show a chef building range through repetition and exposure: Fat Duck in Bray, England (from 2003), then Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain, before a return to the United States and a string of roles that asked for speed, discipline, and adaptation. The progression through Mill's Tavern and Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, D.C. Points to the daily demands of professional kitchen work: composure, pace, and consistency. In New York City, Santoro joined the opening team at Gilt (from 2005), where opening work typically means building systems while the room is still taking shape. By 2007, he had become Head Chef at Boqueria in New York City, a step that marked formal responsibility for direction as well as execution. Later roles widened the scope of that responsibility. Santoro served as executive chef at Talula's Garden (2011–2012), then as executive chef at Andaz 5th Avenue in New York City. He then returned to Washington, D.C. As executive chef at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. (2016–2018), a post that signaled the reach expected of an Executive Chef. Taken together, the moves trace a career built through continuity rather than flash: one appointment after another, each adding another layer of practice. Since from 2018, he has been executive chef at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA.

The Work Today

Since 2018, Santoro has led The Polo Lounge at The Beverly Hills Hotel as executive chef, putting the earlier stages of his career into one setting. The role gathers together the habits formed in culinary school, the tempo of opening-team work, and the broader management required by executive-chef posts in New York and Washington, D.C. the result is less a sudden pivot than an accumulation made visible in one dining room. The craft story here is one of progression through rank. Chef, sous chef, Head Chef, executive chef: the sequence each title carries a wider field of responsibility. Santoro's career shows how authority in a kitchen is usually earned, not declared, and how repeated work across different cities can build into a steady professional language.

Signature

Michael's signature dishes include McCarthy Salad and Black Truffle Cavatelli. The pair suggests a chef working across register: one dish reads familiar and direct, the other leans into a more pronounced note of luxury. Together, they point to a kitchen hand that can move between comfort and polish without changing course.

In Their Words “My best friend’s mother was born in Sicily so I would eat dinner at their house at least five nights a week.” “I would actually go from my house where I would have dinner, to his house for a second dinner.”