One Year Later
After public health restrictions shuttered restaurant life, these six L.A. restaurant pros found creative ways to keep cooking and pivot their careers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To produce this magazine, our first trip to L.A. took place in February 2020, a time of excitement and growth for the restaurant industry in the City of Angels. We completed roughly half of our research before everything changed. But through all the loss and hardship, some restaurant professionals took the opportunity to reignite their careers in different ways.
Chef Ryan Vesper
In one day, Chef Ryan Vesper went from being the culinary director of two busy restaurants (Rossoblu and Superfine Pizza), leading a team of around 50 employees, and consulting with the group to having no job at all. “You can’t just switch to takeout in five days when [Rossoblu’s concept] is all about three hours of storytelling,” Vesper says. He jumped onboard Wilderness Collective, a high-end motorcycle and camping tour company: “We’re feeding 15 to 20 people every meal of the day; creating beautiful, intentional food; and cooking whole butterflied fish on the edge of the Grand Canyon.”
Pastry Chef Mitzi Reyes
A few months prior to the closure of The Bazaar by José Andrés at the SLS Beverly Hills, Pastry Chef Mitzi Reyes welcomed one of the biggest changes of them all: her baby girl. Inspired by her daughter, she launched a home micro-pâtisserie and bakery, Cakes by Zoé. “I have learned a lot—we’ve been very busy and I’m grateful for that,” she says. But now, she’s back in restaurants as the pastry chef of CATCH L.A..
Chef John Taube IV
After the second wave of Los Angeles restaurant closures, Chef John Taube IV was itching to get back in the kitchen. So when his friend Chef Chris Kajioka came calling with a job in Maui, Taube seized the opportunity. He’s now executive chef of Mourad Lahlou’s newest endeavor, Waicoco at the Westin Maui. Taube’s girlfriend, Michelle Jackson, who was furloughed from her bartending role at Death & Co., works by his side as bar director.
Chef Ryan Costanza
“At the start of the pandemic, I decided enough procrastination,” Chef Ryan Costanza says. “It made sense to start a project that has been in the making for some time.” So he and his partners founded Pure Land Sake, a craft sake brewery and yakitori, set to open in Nashville next year. “Throughout the pandemic, I have rented out a space and filled it with state-of-the-art R&D equipment, took classes on microbiology, perfected koji-making, and have test-brewed about 10 batches so far. [I] also became a certified sake professional and shochu pro from the Japanese Sake Association.” For now, Costanza is back at Freedman’s, cooking charcoal-grilled souvlaki.
Chef Balo Orozco
When Onda closed in 2020, Chef Balo Orozco found extra time to visit his friends’ farms across L.A. county. Saddened by the wasted produce that would have been sold at farmers' markets, he and his partner, Jacqui Harning, teamed up with the farmers to rescue as much as possible. “We started a company called Sunset Cultures with the idea to preserve the farmers market by making kombucha,” says Orozco. He and Harning now sell their raw, small-batched kombucha at restaurants, cafes, and zero-waste groceries around the county.
Chef Minh Phan
Forced to close her casual restaurant, Porridge + Puffs, for dine-in, Chef Minh Phan remained busy. She continued running takeout from Porridge + Puffs, collaborated with n/naka and Alta Adams, and in fewer than five days, opened a fine dining concept, Phenakite. Named 2021 Restaurant of the Year by the Los Angeles Times, Phenakite serves 12 to 14 courses that tell stories of art and activism. She says, “Whether it be about the protest or the wildfires, the dishes are always a reaction and a comment.”
