Michael Chang, Chef

Michael Chang is the Chef-Owner of Foray in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, co-founded with his sommelier wife Caroline in 2022. Foray is an intimate, fine-dining restaurant that takes guests on a guided culinary tour of the Central Coast's farms, forests and ocean through 3-course and 5-course menus. Guided by a philosophy that food should convey a strong sense of time and place, the menus draw inspiration from his weekly foraging expeditions and farmers market visits.

Chef Michael dropped out of graduate school at the London School of Economics to pursue his passion for cooking at the French Culinary Institute in Soho, New York. After graduating in 2012, he moved to Denver and was part of several of the city's top restaurants - Bittersweet, Acorn and Beatrice & Woodsley. When he and his wife secured funding to open their own restaurant, they chose to relocate to Carmel-by-the-Sea given its proximity to world-class produce in the Salinas Valley, fresh seafood from Monterey Bay, and award-winning wines from the Santa Lucia Highlands.

Before finding a brick-and-mortar space, Michael and Caroline gained a following by hosting numerous pop-up dinner parties throughout the Monterey Peninsula. These dinners raised over $500k for local nonprofits, including AIM Youth Mental Health and the NPS Foundation. Ultimately, the couple found a permanent space in 2019 and began the process of renovating a building that had been unoccupied for 15 years by focusing on local products like Monterey Cypress and red abalone shells.

Foray has been recognized for elevating Carmel-by-the-Sea's restaurant scene through its commitment to hospitality, sourcing, and sustainability. Whether working on new dishes, exploring the woods for seasonal ingredients, or hosting winemaker dinners with nearby estates, Chef Michael continues to push the boundaries of what dining in Carmel can be - intimate, expressive, and deeply connected to its landscape.