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Michael Dunn, Chef/Partner
As Chef/Partner at Yankee Pier Lafayette, Michael Dunn feels very much at home. Having grown up in California with frequent visits with family in Boston, he feels a sense of pride and heritage in cooking the restaurant’s New England-style items as well as the local catch, including such popular menu items as Maine Lobster Roll, East Coast Atlantic Flounder and Dungeness Crab Bisque. This lineage is further enhanced by working for a company that shares his culinary style and approach to cooking. "The Lark Creek Restaurant Group’s deep-rooted commitment to using only the freshest of ingredients certainly makes Yankee Pier stand out,” says Dunn.Dunn’s career in the culinary arts began on a rather humble route. His very first job was as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Dublin, California. Not yet aware of his true passion, the California native continued at the restaurant while he secured a zoology degree at U.C. Davis with the intention of becoming a veterinarian. However, with his degree in hand and many additional years of schooling ahead, he had second thoughts and took a break from his studies to continue working full time at the Dublin restaurant.
Dunn never looked back. By graduation, he had climbed the ranks to Line Cook and decided to turn his passion for homemade American cooking into a career.
After working in the kitchen of the Dublin restaurant for nine years, Dunn spotted an ad for a cook position at Lark Creek Walnut Creek and jumped at the opportunity. He joined the Lark Creek Walnut Creek team as a line cook just one week after its opening, and has since expanded his culinary understanding beyond his own expectations in the eleven years he has been with the Lark Creek Restaurant Group. "My ‘cooking school’ was through the restaurant. It was a solid educational experience about product, preparation and seasonal foods," he explains. This education propelled him to Sous Chef after six years, and finally to the position of Chef/Partner of Yankee Pier Santana Row.
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