Justin Cogley: from figure skating to fine dining

Amber Gibson speaks to the Aubergine chef about his untraditional path to two stars, passion for running, and his love for Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

At the 2024 California Michelin Guide Ceremony held at The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay on August 5, three new restaurants received two Michelin stars. The recently reopened Vespertine in Los Angeles reclaimed its two-star status, while Sons & Daughters in San Francisco and Aubergine in charming Carmel-by-the-Sea were elevated to two stars for the first time.

Aubergine's chef Justin Cogley is a Relais & Châteaux Grand Chef and has achieved numerous accolades throughout his career, but he says this second Michelin star is the crowning achievement thus far. We chatted with the chef about his untraditional path to two stars, his passion for running, and his love for Carmel.

“Honestly, people should come here just to walk around Point Lobos,” Cogley says. “It's just five miles away but honestly looks like Jurassic Park. It's one of my favorite places to visit, especially in low tide for all the creatures.”

Congratulations on receiving your second Michelin star. You were quite emotional on stage and it's clear that this second star meant a lot to you. Can you share how you were feeling in the moment and how you're feeling now that you've had time to process the achievement?

I really wanted to try to keep it together, but the moment leading up to that event there was so much support from the community, not even just nationally, but internationally rooting for us, so I think that had something to do with it. I was at the Gaggenau event the night prior with chef[s] [Michael] Tusk, William Bradley, Jordan [Kahn] and they were all rooting for myself and the restaurant, so there was a lot of support. I was super nervous, like anyone is, going into that reception and I tried to stay in the back because I felt like there was a huge amount of pressure. It definitely was emotional for sure.

My process with Michelin started nearly a decade ago in 2015. I thought we were doing something really special in Carmel where there wasn't a whole lot of attention at all. I was at the beach just picking flowers one day and I got an email from Yannick Alléno that he was in town and wanted to meet me. I've always loved his food and had all his books. They came into dinner, and he and his wife really enjoyed it. I cooked them breakfast on the beach the next morning, took them to an abalone farm, we picked seaweed and ended up becoming really good friends. He emailed Michelin and told them to check us out and invited me to cook in Paris, where we ended up having lunch with Michael Ellis, the former International Director for Michelin. We went back and forth for years on how we could get inspected.

What does this recognition mean for Carmel?

We are the only two-star restaurant in the Central Coast so it's a huge deal for Carmel, to have not just us but also Chez Noir with a Michelin star. The dining has definitely changed here considerably since I moved here. We are really becoming a legacy restaurant. It's great for tourism and to be recognized as a beautiful place between two major cities—San Francisco and Los Angeles. It's been a long journey, but for us there's been a fire in our belly to keep bringing attention to Carmel. A lot of people travel straight from SF to LA but now there's a much stronger pull toward dining in Carmel and people can stop and have a night here. Michelin was always about being worth a detour and we are on one of the greatest highways in the world and it always made perfect sense.

Now that there's more visibility for Carmel, I'd love to do more collaborations with international chefs. We were just in Taipei doing three nights of dinners with Villa 32 and I got to bring three team members with me.

You have received many awards and recognition from James Beard, Forbes Travel Guide, Relais & Châteaux, and Wine Spectator throughout your career, but would you say this is the award you are most proud of?

Absolutely. I used to tour the world performing in ice skating shows and when I was in different countries, I'd literally take a Michelin book and look up where to go. To now be one of those two-star chefs that I'd search out to go find their restaurant or hotel to sit in the lobby and have a drink is really a full circle moment.

My first international skating competition was in Bulgaria, and traveling as a teenager showed me there was a whole world that existed outside of fast food in Pennsylvania where I grew up. Instead of buying new leather pants at Diesel I'd go to lunch by myself at a two- or three-star place.

You earned your first Michelin star in 2019, which is a huge achievement and many chefs are quite content to keep their Michelin star each year. When did you set your sights on a second star and what do you think separates a one- and two-star restaurant?

Coming from [Charlie] Trotter's, it was drilled into our heads that it's the whole experience and not just the food. And then you have Michelin saying it's mostly based on food, so it's hard to say. I think the biggest thing for us after 2019 was that we all thought about how to really improve the experience.

We took tables out of the dining room. We used to have nine tables in there. You'd be having an expensive meal just four inches from the next table. Since we are a special occasion restaurant for the most part, I think on special occasions you don't really want to hear everything your neighbors are saying. So we redesigned it a little bit and tried to improve the overall service. And the biggest thing that Michelin always points to is consistency. We have to be consistent every night, even when I'm not here. And that was the biggest thing in making the jump is being extremely consistent and always be tasting. You could easily have a bad night but that might be the night the inspector comes in.

You've been the Executive Chef at Aubergine and L'Auberge Carmel since 2011. What do you love about Carmel and how has the restaurant evolved under your leadership?

I love Carmel and I love running and that's one thing that's really kept me in this area. It is so beautiful and it's close to Yosemite which is my favorite place to go. There's the ocean and an airport so you're really in a bubble here. It's a really special place and there's a lot of opportunity. I think there are great plans for other restaurants down the line. I'd love to build a hospitality company myself and really make this a legacy.

In Carmel there are so many restaurants, like 70 restaurants within a square mile. So we have to do something different to keep people coming back. I think evolution is based on continued creativity and we try to capture the food of the coast.

When I started at Aubergine, there were four of us in the kitchen seven days a week. And now we have 14 team members, which I'm super proud of. That's what it takes to really move up and get dialed in. Starting four or five years ago, I would take my team on an annual trip and those trips have been super inspirational. The first trip we took was to Hong Kong and it was one of my cook's first plane rides. This year we went to Peru.

Everyone's getting inspired from street food to Central, cooks had ideas to tweak bites and dishes. We want to keep the consistency of the overall feel of the food, but also have inspiration from everywhere. We close for three weeks in January and I really want to do something fun again next year, but now we have a big team so I'm trying to figure it out.

Before your career as a chef, you were a professional figure skater with Disney on Ice. What was that like and how have those experiences influenced you?

I was a pairs skater so I skated with a partner when I competed at the junior level. We got second place at nationals one year and had a chance to compete internationally. The Russians always won and I was more into the travel and free Team USA clothing. Some of my greatest memories are running around Lake Bled in Slovenia when I was 19 or 20 years old.

After competing, I skated with Disney on Ice for four years and we toured around the world. I went to nice restaurants by myself and I always went to the markets. I was such a produce nerd and I loved to try different vegetables wherever we were. The best things about shows is we might have two or three weeks off sometimes. We'd be in Thailand or the Philippines and we would have so much time off. So if you weren't into going to the clubs, we had so much opportunity to learn.

You enjoy trail running in the mountains in your free time. How has your passion for running and time spent in nature inspired you as a chef?

Coming from Chicago, when I first started here, I was a little heavier. I just found that I loved running long distances and it's a great way to think about work, dishes, last night's service. I don't run as long as I used to because I was super into racing for a while, but I know I inspired a lot of different chefs to move towards a healthier lifestyle. I would get a lot of messages on social media that somebody started a run club or signed up for a triathlon because of me, and that was really cool.

Especially when you go to Yosemite and don't have cell service, you can really just think about things. With racing, I got to meet a lot of endurance athletes and they came to Carmel to eat. I got to go to Madeira twice and race across the whole island. I've been really lucky to meet some great people through running.

Definitely soak up this moment and enjoy your achievement. But I'd be remiss if I didn't ask what might be coming next?

I would like to do an approachable seafood restaurant because we live on the ocean and there isn't anything like that around. I also have a real affection for vintage cocktails and Champagne so that could all be tied together in some way.

We launched our new Champagne pairing in June, and that's been selling really well. Some people still have the misconception that Champagne should only be served super cold and in flutes at the beginning of a meal, but we're working on changing that. I also have a trip with Modern Adventure to Vietnam in December. A lot of the guests who book it are locals here. They think it's fun to travel with me for some reason.