Ari Taymor initially started out his career as a chef, earning accolades for Alma, an experimental pop-up turned restaurant that propelled his career that earned him Food & Wine’s Best Chef of the Year award and a James Beard nomination. But his journey into the hospitality industry wasn’t a linear one. In this conversation, Ari shares the obstacles he confronted along the way, the lessons he learned, and his pivot from cooking in the grace of good timing. In 2020, Ari stepped down as a chef to pursue a new passion project: a land development project in Zihuatanejo, Mexico that is rethinking tourism and its ecosystems.