Inside the Kitchen: Six Questions with Michael Tusk

From Northern Italy to San Francisco, Michael Tusk’s cooking has always been shaped by memory and place. Here, the chef behind Quince, Cotogna, and Verjus answers seven quick questions about fine dining, comfort food, and the meals that stayed with him.

Flora Tsapovsky

5 Minute read

09 Feb 2026

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Michael Tusk

What Is Your Deserted Island Meal?

A big piece of grilled turbot with béarnaise and frites. Like the one at Chez Georges.

What's on Your Restaurant Bucket List?

I knocked one off my list this year when I went to Troisgros. Drop me anywhere in Japan and I’m happy.

What Does Fine Dining Mean to You?

If you wake up the morning after a meal and remember every moment of your meal from the previous day, that’s fine dining. It’s about imprinting a memory.

What’s Your Most Poignant Food Memory?

When I was working in Northern Italy, I learned to make pasta from an agnolotti angel named Lidia, and I ate at many an osteria and trattoria. But the first time I went to a Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant in Italy was when Aldo Vacca and Paolo Saracco brought me to Il Ristorante di Guido in Costigliole, and everything was just so slightly elevated compared to the simple preparations I’d become accustomed to. We ate duck with saffron and had ’85 Marcarini Barolo in a magnum.

What Is Your Food/Cooking Philosophy?

Follow the materia prima.

What's Your Comfort Food?

Japanese milk bread katsu sandwich. Or a good bowl of pozole.

The Chef

Michael Tusk is an acclaimed American chef known for his refined, ingredient-driven cuisine emphasizing seasonal, locally sourced produce. He is the owner and Executive Chef of Quince, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in San Francisco, and its sister restaurant, Cotogna. Tusk is a passionate devotee of Italian cuisine but has formal culinary training in French techniques. He is a chef who operates at the very pinnacle of American fine dining, but with his feet firmly grounded in the farm-to-table movement.

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