Michael Williams
I met Chef Michael Williams in 2013 at the Our Place dining room in Victoria on a cold winter’s day. It was the lunch time rush, and he was volunteering as chef for the day; when we met, he was madly cooking while giving the team of volunteers instructions. Our Place works with Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens, and one of their core values is to give nourishment, hope and belonging to all—and their daily meals personify their core value of unconditional love. Chef Williams had his own TV show, and I was on assignment to interview this celebrity who volunteered at the busiest kitchen in town. He was humble and kind, and as dedicated to using local, healthy ingredients to create a delicious meal for the hundreds who were lined up that day, as he was on his show.
When Michael invited me to see his new venture, Urban Forage, I was excited to discover what he was up to now—because I knew he would be doing something epic.
Urban Forage started as a catering business just before the pandemic hit. How did this impact your business?
The state of the world changed everything for my business. Urban Forage launched as a catering company after dedicating 2019 to planning, marketing and networking. Momentum was building so well in 2020, and after having already been self-employed for over 15 years, I was on pace for a record year. Then everything disappeared overnight with the initial lockdown in March 2020. All my contracts were canceled, and my entire income went to zero.
How did you pivot?
I continued to do small catered events, and then I launched my first artisan retail product: an oat-based energy bar called Chef Mike’s Power Bites, which Country Grocer and other local stores carried. Then we re-launched Urban Forage with a new business model: we created a line of freshly frozen chef-made meals available for home delivery. My vision was to offer the most comprehensive prepared meal service in the world—or at least, in Victoria.
Why did you decide to have a brick and mortar storefront at the Atrium?
After a few challenges renting a commercial kitchen, I decided to be very intentional about finding a space that would fit all my needs. I wrote out a detailed 40-point manifesto (which I still have) of what my new production kitchen would look like, right down to including a beautiful outdoor break space with trees. When I found the kitchen that checked almost every single box on my list, I was surprised to see that it also had an extra box—a café attached to it. I never wanted to own a restaurant, but after negotiating with the best landlords, Jennifer Austin and I decided to add “professional partnership” to our romantic partnership, and we took over the café in the stunning courtyard of The Atrium in downtown Victoria.
Tell us about the culinary experience people will have when they come to Urban Forage at The Atrium.
The Atrium is a spectacular space, and our warm and relaxing environment offers a fantastic menu of noodle bowls, sandwiches, wraps, daily soup, salads, sausage rolls, vegan rolls and snacks, as well as a whole line of delicious desserts and treats. We make it all from scratch and source locally as much as we possibly can. Our creations are unique, healthy and delicious.
You have a variety of Urban Forage branded products, from kimchi to your award-winning mac & cheese. What inspired you to create these?
This was the whole idea, and the only justification that led to Jennifer and I deciding to do what I said I would never do—open a café. Having realized how challenging it was to get the word out for the online delivery model with Urban Forage, the idea of having a brick and mortar location for a specialty market as well as a café was very exciting. While we offer our fantastic menu and love the café aspect of our business, it has always been about the specialty market. We currently have over 80 products comprising the best recipes of my career as well as several from Dan Brown, a career chef himself and my right-hand man in the kitchen.
What’s next?
We are continuing to cater, and we hope to do more of this in the future, as well as grow our home delivery business. We just signed up with Oakland's night market for the entire summer, and we are looking forward to reaching a whole new demographic. We hope to be serving the senior community in a growing way, and finally, having moved on from being the host of “Cookin’ on the Coast,” we are really excited about creating some kind of Urban Forage online cooking content.
Watch the video below for a behind-the-scenes look into the delicious BBQ sauce Michael makes for Urban Forage.
