On November 7, the Clifton Forge Woman’s Club welcomed Michel Galand, former owner of Cafe Michel in Clifton Forge. Michel retired from his restaurant on Ridgeway on December 31, 2021.
Michel was born in 1947 in France on the Swiss Border near Lake Geneva. He started cooking at the age of twelve and was trained in France under the best chefs in the world.
He left France to work at the Princess Hotel and the #One Club in Bermuda for a number of years, then began his sojourn in America. He immigrated to Wisconsin and then moved to Virginia to work at the Homestead and eventually he opened his first restaurant on Main Street in Covington.
In 1982, he moved to Clifton Forge and opened Cafe Michel; the rest is local history. He has cooked for many celebrities including Yul Brynner, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. After 52 years of cooking, Michel retired and he commented, “I don’t even cook for myself anymore”.
The members of the Woman’s Club told him how much he was missed.
Betsy Carter and Libby Burger were hostesses for the November meeting.
The business meeting involved a planning discussion on the Holiday Home Tour which is on December 3 and the Holiday Joy Silent Auction runs from November 28 through 5:00 pm on December 3.
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