Mikey Adams

Today

In San Francisco, the pace and polish of the dining room sharpened Mikey Adams’s approach. From 2022–2024, he served as Head Chef at The St. Regis San Francisco in San Francisco, while also working as a private chef until 2024. Those two tracks point to a useful range: the structure of a hotel kitchen on one side, the flexibility and directness of private work on the other. Since 2024, that experience has been carried into Alderwood in Santa Cruz, where his role now ties his name to the place he has long aimed to cook in.

Signature

The signature kale salad reads as a dish built on clarity rather than excess. In that kind of plate, the work is in restraint, balance, and control of the final result. Mikey Adams’s named signature suggests a cook focused on clean execution and on letting the ingredients carry the weight.

In Their Words “I just love cooking over wood fire.” Wood fire is the point here: flame, smoke, and direct heat as working tools rather than effects. In Mikey Adams’s own words, the method is central to how he cooks. “This is what I always wanted to do. I feel like it’s full circle. I love this town, and it’s always been my dream to be a chef in Santa Cruz.” The statement puts place and practice in the same frame. It reads as a straightforward account of return and alignment, with Santa Cruz as both setting and professional end point.

Recognition

The 2024 move into an executive-chef post is the main marker on the page for Mikey Adams. Set against The St. Regis San Francisco in San Francisco (2022–2024), private-chef work until 2024, and Alderwood since 2024, it marks the point where the line of his work becomes visible in one place.