Michael Midgley Jr.

Cooking since the age of 14, Chef Mike has made a name for himself in the culinary world after graduating for the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco in 2003. Immediately after graduation he owned and operated two "dive bars" where he showcased his flair bar tending skills nightly by blowing fire and bottle tossing for his patrons. He worked his way through the restaurant business to become an executive chef and opened his own restaurant Midgley's Public House in 2014. Since the opening of his highly successful restaurant he has competed and won Chili and Clam Chowder cook-offs every year in Santa Cruz, been named a Certified Angus Beef Ambassador, business man of the year, best Chef in San Joaquin County for 8 years in a row, and competed in and judged dozens of local and national cooking competitions. He has been awarded the "Friend of the Firefighters" award and is known for his philanthropic work locally and nationally. Michael is best known for his big personality as the misfit on Bravo's "Top Chef" season two in which he competed in 11 episodes of the 13 episode season. He has since been an episode judge on Bravo's "Top Chef Masters" and Esquire Networks "Knife Fight" and appeared on and won his episode of "Cutthroat Kitchen "on the Food Network. He has also competed with his wife, Laci, on CNBC's "Restaurant Start up" and most recently the newest show on the Food Network "Tailgate Takedown". He is also the author of the E-book "Mike Midgley 20 easy recipes: Awesome food anyone can cook (with a little help from me!)