Michelle Fried
Sons & Daughters | San Francisco
november 2022
A Long Island native, Michelle Fried exercised her entrepreneurial spirit at an early age, selling homemade cakes to her Port Washington neighborhood. After working a part-time job as an assistant cake decorator throughout high school, Fried knew she wanted to pursue a culinary career, and went on to earn a degree in business management from the Culinary Institute of America with a focus on pastry.
While at school, Fried interned at Morimoto in New York, officially joining the team after graduation. In 2017, Fried moved on to Eleven Madison Park where she learned to set her standards for how a kitchen should run, a set of rules she still follows to this day. Traveling between the Hamptons and Aspen for EMP’s Summer House and Winter House pop-ups, Fried decided to relocate to the West Coast permanently, landing in San Francisco. In 2019, she accepted a position at Saison and began to experiment with bread.
In 2021, after hearing about a job opening at Sons & Daughters, Fried jumped at the opportunity and joined the team alongside Chef John Wesley and owner Teague Moriarty. At Sons & Daughters, Fried has the freedom to experiment with new techniques and flavors. She has embraced the challenges that come with leading a program and is looking to expand her team to give herself time to develop more dynamic, balanced dishes. Fried draws inspiration from her time working with Saison’s Chef Richard Lee, often playing with savory flavor profiles in her desserts, like her koji ice cream with jasmine rice and a peppercorn crumble.
2022 StarChefs San Francisco-Oakland Rising Stars Award Winner
