michael minshull

Chef Michael Minshull is the restaurant chef at the Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria.   He takes great pride in preparing and serving the food and wine of the Pacific Northwest.  His cuisine focuses on the use of fresh, local, organic and wild ingredients sourced directly from island fisherman and farmers.

Michael’s connection with local fisherman is the natural outcome of his deep coastal BC roots.  He grew up in a small fishing village called Sointula located on Malcolm Island in the Inside Passage of Vancouver Island.  His childhood was spent on coastal beaches and his teenage years were spent salmon fishing.  At the age of twelve he started working as a deckhand and troll on a professional salmon fishing boat.

Michael aspired to be a marine biologist but this all changed after he accepted his first cooking job at a B&B in Sointula when he was eighteen.  He discovered a passion for baking fresh bread and enjoyed discovering the mysteries of the kitchen.  He decided to change paths and enrolled in Malaspina University College in Nanaimo where he completed their cooks training program.

He completed is apprenticeship at the Tthe Rimrock Resort in Banff Alberta.  He spent many years working in the Rockies and gradually moved west to Whistler where he worked at the Fairmont Château Whistler, the Delta Whistler and the Tratoria D’Umberto.

He arrived in the garden city in the fall of 2001 when he accepted a job at Cassis Bistro.  He worked as Chef de Partie at the Fairmont Empress Hotel and then became Executive Sous-Chef at the Aerie Resort and chef at Dock 503.  He moved to the Grand Pacific in 2007.

Michael is also a certified sommelier having graduated from the International Sommelier Guilds Diploma Program In June of 2009.