Healthy Living Market Gets Its Michelin Star

Healthy Living Market and Cafe (HLM) has added Chef Michael Daley to its South Burlington, Vt., location’s culinary team. Daley will work with Healthy Living’s growing team of culinary talent to bring the brand’s new HL Fresh line to life. Daley comes to Healthy Living after a lengthy career in the restaurant industry, having led 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, respectively—at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Daley was tasked with navigating the shutdown and helping address increased food insecurity in the region.

Through his initiatives, the restaurants partnered with World Central Kitchen to feed over 23,000 people in need over a 10-week period. He also partnered with Family House San Francisco, a children’s cancer center, to provide 400 meals per week to at-risk youth and their families. To stabilize the restaurants’ finances, Daley created a meal kit program called Mourad at Home that both brought back staff and generated revenue.

Mourad at Home featured Michelin-starred Moroccan dinners for two with dishes such as Marash Glazed Heritage Chicken and Gaeta Olives, as well as Braised Lamb Shoulder with Fennel, Saffron and Moyer Prune.

Chef Michael Daley

Daley is expected to bring his expertise in modern North African cuisine to Healthy Living Market’s retail foodservice experience, HLM VP of Culinary Matthew Jennings told WGB earlier this year. At Healthy Living Market, Daley joins fellow acclaimed restaurant-industry chefs, including Jennings, Culinary Director Scott Como and chefs Derek Robert and Jimmy Winslow.

With the vision of taking retail foodservice to a new level, Healthy Living Market recently launched HL Fresh, a housemade, seasonally focused food program conceived and spearheaded by Jennings. A James Beard Award nominee and former competitor on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef Showdown,” Jennings has staffed HLM’s kitchens with other former restaurant chefs, bringing fresh talent and a new culinary perspective to the Burlington, Vt.-based family-owned grocer.

The company said the HL Fresh line will be Daley’s primary focus, where he will contribute to a robust, rotating menu of seasonal, local and housemade dishes prepared in a kitchen that thrives on creativity and using the highest quality ingredients.

“At Healthy Living, I’m working with chefs that have the same ideals as I do,” said Daley in a statement. “We’re cooking from scratch and cooking seasonally. Working in the Cafe, 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.”

“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 Cafe continues to evolve with him on board.”

Healthy Living Market and Cafe is a regional, independent supermarket specializing in local, organic, and natural foods with stores in South Burlington and Williston, Vt., and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.