In this episode of Repertoire, I travel to Hollywood, California to sit down with Charbel Hayek—Lebanese-born chef, Top Chef Middle East & North Africa winner, and the creative force behind LAYR, a restaurant that channels the hospitality, flavor, and spirit of the Levant through a distinctly Los Angeles lens.

Charbel began cooking in Beirut at just 14 years old, working alongside his mother before refining his craft in France and later training under Josiah Citrin at the two-Michelin-starred Mélisse. At 24, he won Top Chef MENA, launching him into international recognition. Now, at 28, he’s opening ambitious, large-scale restaurants across Los Angeles and Miami while remaining deeply grounded in his roots.

We dive into:

• Growing up in Beirut, shaped by resilience, nightlife, instability, and an unbreakable cultural pride.

• Starting young, putting in the hours early, and why the first ten years of sacrifice define your trajectory.

• Winning Top Chef at 24—and why television is not a ticket, but an opportunity you must be ready for.

• The immigrant mentality: loving where you’re from while recognizing the scale of opportunity in America.

• Fear as fuel—why he runs toward intensity instead of away from it in high-pressure kitchens.

• Balancing old-school French discipline with modern leadership and hospitality.

• Reclaiming Lebanese cuisine on the global stage—modernizing dishes without losing their identity.

• Why sharing food—mezze, tabbouleh without bulgur, grape leaves braised with lamb neck—is about connection, not just flavor.

• Opening multiple restaurants at once and accepting that entrepreneurship comes with risk, doubt, and relentless work.

• Rap music, Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” and how cultural energy fuels competitive fire.

Charbel and I talk about partnership, ambition, discipline, faith, and the responsibility of leadership. We get into what it means to open restaurants in today’s fragile industry, how Covid reshaped risk tolerance, and why saying “yes” to opportunity—when aligned with your values—can change the entire arc of your career.

At its core, this is a conversation about identity and intention—about carrying your culture with pride while building something new in one of the most competitive food cities in the world.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I travel to Redondo Beach, California to sit down with Jason Fullilove—chef, restaurateur, entrepreneur, and one of the most community-minded forces quietly shaping Los Angeles hospitality.

Jason’s path spans more than two decades and multiple worlds. A Culinary Institute of America alum, he climbed the ranks from high-volume New York kitchens to the Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas, then into some of L.A.’s most respected dining rooms before launching Barbara Jean LA, where he brought African American soul food into a fine-dining conversation with precision and pride. Today, he’s expanding beyond restaurants with Tumi Coco, a clean, all-natural hot sauce built around turmeric, coconut oil, and flavor-first cooking—part pantry staple, part personal philosophy.

But what makes Jason different isn’t just the résumé—it’s the way he shows up for people.

We dive into:

• Growing up between Cleveland and Zambia, and how early memories of scarcity, travel, and communal meals shaped his relationship to food.

• The jump from music and rap to professional kitchens—and how hip-hop still fuels his creative energy.

• Building Barbara Jean from scratch and discovering the power of community, relationships, and reputation.

• Why networking in hospitality isn’t transactional—it’s about showing up, giving back, and playing the long game.

• Creating Tumi Coco as a chef tool: clean ingredients, no preservatives, and food that supports health and performance.

• Martial arts, discipline, and how training the body sharpens the mind in high-pressure kitchens.

• Mentorship, patience, and why young cooks should chase skill over titles.

• His next chapter: a paratha-driven café and listening bar concept, blending Indian flavors, vinyl culture, cocktails, and late-night hospitality.

Jason and I talk about energy, generosity, and what it means to build a career rooted in service—to food, to culture, and to the people around you. It’s a conversation about longevity, intention, and creating spaces where everyone feels welcome at the table.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I travel to Santa Monica, California to sit down with Susan Feniger—chef, restaurateur, television pioneer, and one of the architects of modern Southern California food culture.

Susan’s story stretches across more than four decades of American dining. After early years cooking in Chicago, France, and Los Angeles, she and longtime partner Mary Sue Milliken opened City Café in 1981, followed by City Restaurant and the groundbreaking Border Grill, helping introduce Angelenos to a more nuanced, regionally grounded understanding of Mexican cuisine. Her career has earned lifetime achievement honors from the James Beard Foundation, the LA Times, and the California Restaurant Association, with artifacts from her first restaurant now held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

We dive into:

• Building long-term creative partnerships and sustaining trust over decades.

• What it takes to remain curious, relevant, and physically present in kitchens over a 40-year career.

• How leadership evolves from command-and-control toward empathy, stability, and emotional intelligence.

• Why restaurants function as chosen families, safe spaces, and engines of community care.

• Her lifelong commitment to philanthropy and advocacy, from LGBTQ+ leadership to medical research fundraising.

• The intersection of food, identity, fashion, and self-expression in chef culture.

• Balancing creative freedom with operational discipline and financial reality.

• How aging, mentorship, and succession reshape responsibility in hospitality.

Susan and I talk about longevity, stewardship, generosity, and quiet discipline—the invisible work required to keep showing up with integrity in an industry that rarely slows down. It’s a conversation about building legacy not through visibility or ego, but through consistency, care, and service.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I boogy down to street to James Island, South Carolina to sit down with Shaun Brian—chef, operator, community builder, and one of the most quietly influential figures shaping how seafood, hospitality, and leadership intersect in the Lowcountry.

Shaun’s story begins far from restaurant kitchens. Raised on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he grew up foraging, fishing, gardening, and building—learning self-reliance, respect for food, and community responsibility long before he ever put on a chef coat. His upbringing spans Caribbean culture, West Indian household traditions, Rainbow Gatherings, Quaker boarding school, and a deeply formative reckoning with accountability that would ultimately shape his values as a leader.

We dive into:

• Growing up on a remote island and how fishing, foraging, and scarcity shaped his relationship with food.
• The Caribbean as a cultural crossroads—and how global flavors, preservation, and technique naturally coexist there.
• Early lessons in accountability, honesty, and consequence that became lifelong leadership principles.
• Why kitchens attract “misfits,” how pirate-ship culture once defined the industry, and why growing up is essential for longevity.
• The difference between treating cooking as a lifestyle versus building a sustainable career.
• Mentorship, burnout, and how to protect passion over a 30-year career in a demanding industry.
• Building Cuda Co. as a community-driven seafood operation—supporting fishers, feeding families, and training the next generation of cooks.
• Why trust, relationships, and showing up fully matter more than titles or ego.

Shaun and I talk openly about failure, shame, growth, leadership, and the unseen labor that makes restaurants work—from fixing broken equipment to carrying the emotional weight of teams and communities. It’s a deeply human conversation about values, evolution, and what it actually means to lead with integrity in hospitality.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I travel to Black Rock City, the temporary desert city that rises each year for Burning Man, to sit down with Chef Sammy Jackson—one of my closest friends and a chef whose life and career have unfolded across continents, cultures, and extreme conditions.

This episode is a little different—and that’s the point. Recorded live on the playa during Burning Man 2025, this is a holiday bonus episode—a dusty, sunburned, radically self-reliant Christmas gift from the desert. We weren’t able to film our full sit-down conversation due to weather, dust, and gear constraints (welcome to the playa), but the audio is crystal clear, and the episode is visually brought to life through immersive B-roll captured throughout the burn. We also filmed a full “The Dish” cooking segment—proof that even in the harshest environment on earth, chefs will still feed people with care.

Born in St. Helens, Australia, Sammy’s journey spans Sydney kitchens like Catalina, cooking for royalty in the UK, private chalets in the French Alps, luxury yachts across the Mediterranean and Caribbean, and Boston—where he built the cult-favorite Australian meat pie shop KO Pies before selling the business post-pandemic and returning to a nomadic, adventure-driven life.

We dive into:

What it takes to cook at scale in one of the most extreme festival environments imaginable—dust storms, mud, heat, cold, and total infrastructure improvisation.

Feeding and nourishing a camp of 75 people for nearly two weeks without compromising standards.

Adapting menus, systems, and expectations in real time when conditions change daily.

Why morale, teamwork, and shared purpose matter as much as technique in extreme hospitality.

How nourishment becomes sacred when exhaustion, survival, and community intersect.

Why cooking at Burning Man strips the craft back to its core: intention, generosity, and care.

Sammy and I reflect on friendship, endurance, and why chefs are uniquely equipped to thrive in chaos—problem-solvers by nature, builders of systems, caretakers of people. This episode is raw, funny, dusty, and deeply human—a holiday bonus from the playa, wrapped in foil, gifted late, and delivered with love.

Consider this your Repertoire Christmas special—no snow, no sleighs, just fire, dust, community, and a reminder of why we cook for one another in the first place.

Watch the episode visuals on YouTube, listen to the full audio wherever you get your podcasts, and happy holidays from the desert.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I travel to Boston’s Back Bay to sit down with Chris Coombs—James Beard Award–nominated chef, restaurateur, and co-founder of Boston Urban Hospitality, known for shaping some of the city’s most defining dining rooms, including Deuxave, dbar, and Boston Chops.

Chris’s journey is rooted in precision, discipline, and an almost obsessive commitment to the craft. From his formative years cooking under Patrick O’Connell at The Inn at Little Washington—a place he still calls “church”—to becoming one of Boston’s most influential culinary leaders, his story is one of evolution, resilience, and relentless refinement. Today, he’s expanding his vision with BOSSE, a 100,000-square-foot concept blending pickleball, pastry, fitness, and hospitality into a new kind of community hub.

We dive into:

• His early mentorship at The Inn at Little Washington and the lessons that shaped his standards of excellence.
• Why he believes chefs must honor every part of the animal, and how respect influences the way he cooks duck, steak, and seafood.
• The shift from fine dining to building BOSSE, and what it means to create a concept that merges sport, food, and lifestyle.
• The rise of “soft boy cooks,” and the changing expectations of professionalism, discipline, and work ethic in today’s kitchens.
• How social media has reframed the public’s understanding of culinary skill—and the tension between online clout and real craft.
• The economics of dining, value perception, and what it takes to run restaurants in a culture that both celebrates and undervalues food.

Chris and I talk about legacy, standards, and the evolution of leadership—what changes with age, what stays the same, and how a chef shapes culture both inside and outside the kitchen.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I travel to Los Angeles, California to sit down with Mei Lin—James Beard Award–winning chef, Top Chef champion, and the creative mind behind Daybird, the first fast-casual Szechuan hot chicken spot in the U.S.

Born in China and raised in Detroit, Mei’s path through food is a story of balance—between precision and intuition, heat and harmony, tradition and reinvention. Her journey spans from fine dining kitchens like Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Michael Voltaggio’s Ink to winning Top Chef: Boston and earning national acclaim for redefining fried chicken through an unapologetically personal lens.

We dive into:

• How her Chinese heritage and Midwest upbringing shaped her palate and perspective.
• The origins of Daybird and how she brought a Szechuan spin to the American fried chicken sandwich.
• Her approach to creative evolution, from running food pop-ups to managing a viral restaurant phenomenon.
• Why she values minimalism, restraint, and control as guiding principles in both cooking and leadership.
• What winning Top Chef taught her about visibility, confidence, and the reality behind TV fame.
• How she channels identity and authenticity through flavor—using spice, texture, and timing as her language.

Mei and I talk about the duality of being a chef in today’s world—where tradition and innovation are constantly in dialogue, and where clarity of vision is what keeps your craft alive.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I continue my conversation with James Beard Award–winning chef and Saltbox Seafood Joint founder Ricky Moore—a man who’s turned frying fish into an act of storytelling, mentorship, and self-discovery.

In Part 2, we dig even deeper into Ricky’s philosophy on leadership, culture, and the craft of cooking. What begins as a conversation about building better kitchens evolves into a masterclass on purpose and presence. Ricky and I dig into what it truly means to lead, create, and sustain culture in the modern restaurant world.

We dive into:

• The responsibility of chefs to lead with empathy—and how accountability shapes healthy work culture.
• Why joy and discipline can coexist in the kitchen, and how the old “angry chef” archetype has no place in modern hospitality.
• Breaking cycles of fear-based leadership and replacing them with creativity, intention, and love.
• The evolution of American food culture—and what it means to protect tradition while embracing technology.
• A chef’s science talk on steak perfection, sous vide precision, and the beauty of rendering fat just right.
• The connective tissue between global cuisines—from Basque salted cod to North Carolina seafood—and how storytelling ties it all together.

And then, the rhythm shifts. The conversation flows into hip hop, creativity, and the parallels between music and food. We talk about:

• The shared language of authenticity, individuality, and storytelling, rejecting “corny” personas in both art forms.
• How the golden age of hip hop shaped our generation’s worldview — referencing Busy Bee, Jay-Z, and the pioneers of Wild Style — and how those voices came from Black and brown resilience and trauma.
• The way rap continues to mature alongside its founders, with veteran MCs still pushing culture forward—just as seasoned chefs continue to innovate in their craft.
• And how artists like RZA and Mos Def embodied conscious lyricism and social awareness—long before “woke” became a headline.

This is Ricky Moore in full form: reflective, relentless, and rooted in respect for the people who make restaurants run. It’s not just a conversation about food—it’s about rhythm, leadership, culture, and the future we’re building one plate at a time.

Watch Part 2 of Repertoire featuring Ricky Moore on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I’m in Durham, North Carolina, where the scent of hot oil, vinegar, and fresh herbs drifts down the block from Saltbox Seafood Joint—a place that’s redefined what it means to serve North Carolina seafood with soul.

My guest, Chef Ricky Moore, is a James Beard Award–winning chef, cookbook author, Army veteran, and proud North Carolina native. His journey spans fine dining kitchens around the world, yet it’s here—on the side of the road in Durham—where he distilled decades of training into something profoundly simple: fish cooked with heart, skill, and truth.

We talk about:

• The meaning behind the word “joint”—and why he traded white tablecloths for a walk-up window.
• His “gospel of croaker and spot”—a sermon on honoring local fish and the overlooked beauty of whole fry.
• Growing up fishing the Neuse River with his grandmother and learning that vinegar, not lemon, was all you needed.
• How a trip to Singapore inspired the model for Saltbox, and why doing one thing deliciously is enough.
• The art of patience, purpose, and building something authentic one plate at a time.
• What it means to lead with passion, intention, and integrity in an industry that tests all three.

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation that captures the rhythm and reverence of a chef who’s turned a humble roadside shack into a Southern institution. Ricky Moore doesn’t just fry fish—he tells stories through it.

Watch Part 1 of Repertoire with Chef Sammy Monsour featuring Ricky Moore on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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In this episode of Repertoire, I’m in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, where oyster shells clink and the tide meets the bar, sitting down with Renée Erickson—James Beard Award–winning chef, restaurateur, author, and the creative force behind The Walrus and the Carpenter and her celebrated restaurant group, Sea Creatures.

Renée’s food has always carried a quiet confidence—briny, romantic, and rooted in grace. Her restaurants feel like art installations you can eat inside of, shaped by her painter’s background and eye for beauty in texture, color, and imperfection. We talk about how that foundation in art informs her approach to cooking, design, and storytelling through space and plate alike.

We dive into:

• The creative intersection between visual art and cuisine, and how her degree in painting still guides every concept she builds.
• Learning to see food differently after studying abroad in Rome, and how Italy’s reverence for seasonality reshaped her worldview.
• Building a restaurant empire from a 25-year-old’s leap of faith, without investors, blueprints, or a roadmap.
• The evolution of Seattle’s restaurant culture—its challenges, costs, and resilience amid change.
• Her process for creating dishes that start with vegetables, texture, and mood rather than recipes.
• The delicate balance between entrepreneurship and artistry, and why she still cooks for herself at home after long days in the kitchen.
• What it means to lead with intention, mentor young cooks, and protect creativity in a business that rarely lets you come up for air.

Renée and I explore what it takes to sustain beauty, community, and craft in one of America’s most thoughtful food cities—and why the work of chefs like her must endure.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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