Chef
Michael Schulson
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Venue
- Sampan · Restaurant
i. Biography
The working formation behind Sampan in Philadelphia runs through institutional training, hotel polish, fine-dining discipline, and Asian cooking traditions. Michael Schulson trained at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, through 1995, then moved through New York, Tokyo, Philadelphia, Thailand, and into the restaurant group later tied to Philadelphia’s modern dining scene.
Coming Up
Professional kitchen discipline is built by repetition across different service formats. Michael Schulson trained at Culinary Institute of America before working as chef at Peacock Alley in New York, chef at Park Avenue Café, chef at Le Bec-Fin, and chef at Susanna Foo. The sequence put hotel dining, refined restaurant service, and tightly run kitchens into the same apprenticeship of timing, restraint, and command. Asian cooking traditions enter this profile as technique rather than decoration. In Schulson’s work, the register is balance: heat with freshness, texture with fragrance, precision with informality. Movement through New York, Tokyo, Philadelphia, and Thailand gave that interest a broader working context, later visible in Philadelphia restaurants built for shared plates and high-volume social dining. Large-format restaurant work requires food, room, and pace to function as one system. In 2007, Schulson became Opening NYC chef at Buddakan in New York City, a high-visibility environment where scale and atmosphere had to be managed alongside the kitchen. That role sits between the earlier chef résumé and the later work of building restaurants as complete hospitality machines. Restaurant ownership widened the craft from cooking to concept, staffing, service rhythm, and audience. Today, Schulson is chef-partner of Izakaya at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa since 2008; founder / owner of Sampan since 2009; founder / owner of Graffiti Bar since 2009; founder / owner of Independence Beer Garden since 2014; founder / owner of Harp & Crown; and founder / owner of Double Knot since 2016. The footprint shows a shift from individual kitchens into multiple concepts with separate moods, scales, and occasions. A group of restaurants can hold different kinds of service without needing one fixed style. Sampan and Graffiti Bar, both attached to Schulson since 2009, pair a restaurant identity with a more tucked-away bar format. Independence Beer Garden since 2014 works in another mode, broader and more open-air in spirit, while Harp & Crown and Double Knot since 2016 extend the range again. The through line is momentum: rooms built for a night out, with food and setting treated as connected parts of the job.
Where They Are Now
Asian-fusion cooking remains the public shorthand for Sampan in Philadelphia, where Schulson is the owner. In a Philadelphia dining culture with broader range and confidence, Sampan remains one of the central addresses tied to his career. Its identity sits in the overlap between shared-plate energy, Asian-fusion technique, and the pace of a busy city restaurant. Restaurant and bar work are treated here as linked forms of hospitality. Schulson is also the owner of Sampan and Graffiti Bar in Philadelphia, a pairing that shows how his work moves between the dining room and the experience around it. The names function as part of his public vocabulary: polished but lively, structured but social, attentive to both flavor and setting. A restaurant collective asks the same questions as a kitchen, only at a wider scale: standards, systems, openings, staffing, pacing, and identity. At Schulson Collective, Schulson is Executive Chef and owner, as well as founder and Chief Executive Officer. Those titles collect the cook trained through 1995 at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY; the chef who worked at Peacock Alley in New York, Park Avenue Café, Le Bec-Fin, and Susanna Foo; the Opening NYC chef at Buddakan in New York City in 2007; and the operator behind Izakaya at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa since 2008, Sampan since 2009, Graffiti Bar since 2009, Independence Beer Garden since 2014, Harp & Crown, and Double Knot since 2016. The present work is not separate from kitchen craft; it is kitchen craft extended into rooms, teams, and repeatable service. Prep discipline, service choreography, ingredient judgment, opening pressure, and the feel of a room all remain part of the same trade. “I believe the best meals start with the best ingredients.” Michael has said.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Michael
What is Michael Schulson's current role?
Michael Schulson is Owner of Sampan.
Where did Michael Schulson train or study?
Michael Schulson trained at Culinary Institute of America.
What recognition has Michael Schulson received?
Most beautiful restaurants of 2016 (2016).
