Healthy Living Market and Café Hires Chef Michael Daley
Healthy Living Market and Café has added chef Michael Daley to its South Burlington, Vermont, location’s culinary team. Daley will work with Healthy Living’s growing roster of culinary talent to further develop the independent’s recently introduced HL Fresh line of chef-prepared meals.
He comes to Healthy Living after a long career in the restaurant industry, having run both Michelin-starred and AAA Five Diamond kitchens. As culinary director and executive chef for the Mourad Lahlou-owned San Francisco restaurants Mourad and Aziza at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Daley dealt with the shutdown and worked to ease increased food insecurity in the area. Under his direction, the restaurants joined forces with World Central Kitchen to feed more than 23,000 needy people in a 10-week period. He also teamed with Family House San Francisco, a children’s cancer center, to provide 400 meals a week to at-risk kids and their families. To stabilize the restaurants’ finances, Daley developed a meal kit program, Mourad at Home, which kept staff employed and generated revenue.
At Healthy Living, Daley will focus on HL Fresh’s robust rotating menu of seasonal, local and house-made dishes prepared in a kitchen that emphasizes creativity and the highest-quality ingredients.
“At Healthy Living, I’m working with chefs that have the same ideals as I do,” noted Daley. “We’re cooking from scratch, and cooking seasonally. Working in the café, I’m still a chef, but with increased creative freedom. I’m excited to be working with like-minded professional chefs with an incredible depth of talent.”
The retailer’s lineup of restaurant-industry chefs also includes VP of Culinary Matthew Jennings, Culinary Director Scott Como, and chefs Derek Robert and Jimmy Winslow.
“Chef Daley is an outstanding addition to our team,” said Jennings. “At Healthy Living, we look to embrace individuality while maintaining consistency. Chef Daley is an extremely talented chef, and his background and skill set adds to a differentiated experience for our guests. Due to the collaborations between the chefs, we now have the expression of five chefs on one menu, which is unprecedented in this industry. We are so excited to see how our café continues to evolve with him on board.”
Healthy Living Market and Café specializes in local, organic and natural foods at its stores in South Burlington and Williston, Vermont, and Saratoga Springs, New York. The company employs 320 associates across the three locations. A triple-bottom-line company committed to mission, vision and values from the top down, Healthy Living endeavors to sell the finest and cleanest food at the fairest prices possible while supporting local farmers and producers.
