The Brief

Insane hours, the toxic work environments, low pay and stringent standards — plenty of ink and film have been spent lately rehashing the stressors that come with working in the culinary industry.

Yet, for the most part, the culture has dictated that workers suffer silently, placing their well-being — and their mental health especially — on the backburner.

But after the back-to-back deaths of two prominent figures in the local L.A food scene, a couple of seasoned food pros have decided that this status-quo doesn’t cut it. They’re determined to get food-and-beverage workers into the therapy chair.

For Alyssa Noui, 38, a leading L.A. food stylist, and Kristel Arabian, 41, a food and beverage recruiter and former chef at a Michelin Star restaurant, the last straw came in February. First it was Jonathan Whitener, the celebrated chef and partner at Here’s Looking at You and All Day Baby restaurants. Whitener died at home from a drug overdose.

A couple of weeks later, Jered Standing, the popular butcher and founder of animal-conscious Standing’s Butchery, killed himself.

Noui and Arabian both had known Whitener and Standing. Their deaths, at 36 and 44, respectively, hit hard with “my elder millennial generation of people in the food space,” said Noui, a veteran of shows like Master Chef, Guy’s Grocery Games, etc.

Whitener was a “big loss to the food world,” she noted, adding how his menu items altered the foodscape. “Like, we're seeing things on that page, which were familiar but were never put together, like the chicken-fried rabbit,” a favorite from his days at another restaurant, Animal.

Meanwhile Standing’s Butchery was a once-a-week stop for Arabian, either to pick up something to cook for dinner or for a Sunday social burger. Noui called him a “dear friend.” By all accounts, Standing, a former vegetarian, was changing how chefs and insiders went about animal sourcing. He was readying a second location in Venice.

Noui said it was one of those friendships where 10 years later you laugh trying to place how you knew each other. Was it Lindy and Grundy or Salt's Cure?

“He checked all the boxes you’re supposed to, to be successful,” Noui said, adding “he was a good-looking dude with great people around him.”

“But if you're not right in your mind, you’re not right in your spirit—what do you really have?”

Channeling grief into gathering

When news broke about Standing’s death, weeks after Whitener’s, “It’s almost, you know, when someone tells a bad joke or something and the room gets quiet, and you're like, ‘Oh my God, who's going to say the next thing?’”

Arabian had met Noui through the Santa Monica farmers’ market network some years back. She remembers speaking to Noui about how their grieving community needed support.

She made a passive comment about 'everyone needing a hug', Arabian said. "'I'm like, yeah, how do we do that?"

The two organized an event which they’ve since dubbed the “F+B Community Check-In” and took over the back patio at Tabula Rasa, the Hollywood wine bar and industry hangout whose name translates to a “blank slate.”

Rather than just creating another customary eulogic Instagram post, “I channeled my grief into gathering,” Noui said. Tabula Rasa, which has a “dark, grown and sexy feeling,” is responsible for putting a lot of first-rate L.A. pop-ups on the map, including Burgers by Standing and Broad Street Oyster, according to Noui.

It was a nice place to bring out “our people” who spend most of their time in the back of those type of places, she said.

The next event was held at the quaint and cozy Now Serving, the Chinatown cookbook store run by Ken Concepcion, a former Wolfgang Puck chef at Cut. The store, which “gives cottage vibes with a sick library,” is also a haven for public discussions and meeting places for local makers and creatives.

Alyssa Noui and Kristel Arabian

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Sam Gezari

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LAist

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For that first event, Arabian created a flier in Canva and went through her contacts looking for sponsors willing to donate food. But they didn’t want it to be just a grieving party, so Noui and Arabian sought another angle.

They found the Southern Smoke Foundation, a Houston-based nonprofit offering free “Behind You” therapy sessions specifically for food and beverage workers. Currently operating their mental health program in ten states, the foundation's sessions are administered locally by grad students at California Lutheran University, seeking to fulfill their curriculum hours. The non-profit also offers emergency relief grants for industry workers. The only conditions are that they work a minimum of 30 hours a week — across multiple jobs, if necessary — and that they’ve worked in the industry for at least six months.

After Noui and Arabian went through the Southern Smoke Foundation offerings at the first meeting, a fishbowl was put out where attendees could share anonymously anything they felt compelled to bare, Arabian said. One person wrote, "I know that the food matters, but when will I start mattering?"

"It f—ing crushed me," Arabian recalled. Others used the opportunity to bounce around career concerns: questions related to pricing, tipping, and other ways they could come together to improve the industry or support one another.

Noui doesn’t need the Southern Smoke offerings herself. She has motion picture insurance as part of a local craftsperson union and has just a $5 copay for counseling. She couldn’t afford it otherwise, she said. Now the question is, “how do I hold the door open for more people to have access to it?”

Cutting through the stigma

Southern Smoke founder, the Houston-based, James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd, 51, says if you talk to any cook they’ll tell you the same thing: “I still hear the ticket machine in my head at night. You know, you can hear that, geeegeee, geeegeee sound. It doesn't stop.”

The foundation was originally conceived through a Houston festival intended to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. Shepherd was trying to help a sommelier friend battling the disease. The participating chefs and organizers started speaking about opening up the mental health dimension before the 2018 festival, right after the suicide of superstar TV chef Anthony Bourdain.

Within a few days of the celebrity chef’s death, a friend of one of the festival chefs also had taken his own life. So, “with twenty-something of the best chefs in the country coming in,” Shepherd said, there was a special opportunity to have that conversation.

The profession will always be a high-pressure one, but that doesn’t mean we can’t mitigate harm where possible, he said. Beyond the obvious barriers of accessibility and affordability, there’s also the built-in cultural stigma around asking for help. Since the Southern Smoke therapy sessions are conducted via telehealth, “nobody needs to know,” he said.

Kait Leonard, 28, a freelance chef, producer and co-owner of BOH Creative, a marketing agency that works with restaurants and their staffs, decided to attend the second Check-In event at Now Serving, although she wasn’t sure if she was in the right headspace beforehand.

In 2023, a couple of months after cofounding her company, Leonard fell into a deep depression and admitted herself to the ER with suicidal ideation. She wasn’t sure if she was up for attending the meetup, but decided her presence could help someone else.

“Like 'I went to the ER for, you know, I really didn't want to be here. And that's okay'.” Ultimately, her hope most importantly was that these meetups would be a positive outlet and tool for her clients, to help create a healthier workplace. “I wish something like this existed when I was first starting to work in kitchens,” she said.

Brandon Gray, 38, chef and founder of Brandoni Pepperoni, the Los Angeles inspired pizza pop-up, has attended multiple Check-In events thus far. “A lot of trauma bonding,” took place at said events, he said, adding “everyone there has their own story, there’s a lot of overlap”.

“It’s about just figuring out how to be better,” he said. “Because it needs to be better—the people who have been cooking as long as I have, it's not fun anymore.”

Checking in about mental health

The “hospitality industry is excessive,” says Noui. But it’s important to remember that those who are drawn to it, either back-of-house or front, are those who naturally, or are conditioned to, put themselves second. It’s those inherent “masochistic qualities that everyone has,” the same ones we see “romanticized in shows like the Bear” that come “out of service — out of wanting to serve."

At Kitchen Culture Recruiting, the company she started, Arabian says she makes it a point to check in with potential hospitality candidates about their mental health, “but it’s not something you can hit chefs over the head with,” she said. “It takes trust,” from someone who’s been through it. But there are limits, she says. “I’m not a psychologist.”

Arabian remembers her first time working in the kitchen as a cook, after feeling pushed by her family to become a pharmacist. For the first time, it felt like she was doing what she was supposed to be doing. She’d go on to work back-of-house for approximately ten years reaching the level of executive chef. In her last chef role she was working as executive sous chef at a bakery and pizzeria. But after working in front of a wood-burning stove for as much as 110 hours a week, 14-16 hours a day, seven days a week, she developed a chronic illness and had to leave. The safety net just wasn’t there.

While any job can be anxiety-producing, “cooking is one job that has so much “machismo and bravado” around it that physically, “when you become ill, it is life-changing,” she said. Rather than seek out another chef job, she became a front-of-house and back-of-house recruiter. She remembers saying, “Until I find a really great job for myself, in the meanwhile, I'm going to make sure that chefs are taken care of.” Fourteen years later, she says, "I’m still trying.”

Noui has been workshopping her own community resource tool. She bought a phone number that she’s calling the “My Chef” line, 855-My-Chef-8, which she also had printed on pens. This hotline can be used for everything from finding someone to fill a job, like a chef, stylist, or dishwasher or for accountability checks.

Ultimately, Shepherd says it's important for people to know there is help. He's not a fan of all the emerging depictions of extreme kitchen conditions put out there today. “There's these new TV shows that glorify this [toxic workplace elements] when an industry is trying to get away from it…I think it’s wrong. Unless at the end of it you say, ‘hey, you know what? Therapy is available.’”

This story first published in The LA Local.

Take a deep breath. The elimination rounds of the World Cup have begun. Mexico will battle against Ecuador on Tuesday, with kickoff at 6 p.m. local time.

After winning every game in their group for the first time in their history, Mexico faces their toughest opponent yet. There is no room for mistakes, a loss means instant elimination for either team. Ecuador barely squeezed out of their group with a final impressive victory against Germany. Now potentially 80,000 Mexican fans await them in Estadio Azteca.

Here are the free spots showing the game all over Koreatown, Pico Union, and Westlake. There are no official park-sponsored watch parties in the local neighborhoods, according to the city’s Kick It In the Park schedule, but here are a few of the local sports bars, restaurants and other spots that will be showing the game.

Koreatown

The Line Hotel
3515 Wilshire Blvd. 
The hotel has been showing games throughout the tournament and will have special offers on drinks and food. The venue will show the game on a large LED screen, with live mariachi band and DJ set by Chulita Vinyl Club. There will also be a 90-minute unlimited margarita pitchers for $45 per person, according to the organizers. More information can be found here.

Biergarten
206 N. Western Ave.
Don’t be mistaken. The Biergarten is showing every match on multiple screens all over the bar. Their promise of Korean-German fusion is accompanied by a plethora of drinks on tap. More information can be found here.

Eastwood
611 S. Western Ave.
The country inspired bar and restaurant will host the game on various screens around the bar as well as serving bar towers and other specials. If the game isn’t enough of an emotional rollercoaster for fans, they can try their luck on the bar’s mechanical bull. Door will open at 430pm. More information can be found here.

Baja’s Grill Sports Cantina
3250 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 103
For flavors of Baja California during the game this Cantina will be running specials and happy hour. The Bar is surrounded by multiple screens and regularly hosts $35 open bars from 6-10pm.

Lock and Key 
239 S. Vermont Ave. 
The cocktail den will be hosting the game alongside $8 drink specials for margaritas, palomas, and vodka martinis. Multiple DJs will also be present during and after the game. More information can be found here.

DJM Soju Bar
3275 Wilshire Blvd.
The restaurant will host the game both indoors and outdoors alongside food and drink specials. They serve a variety of plates from spicy pork bulgogi, seafood soup, to sweet and sour chicken. A wide variety of soju is also offered. Doors will open at 4pm. More information can be found here.

Westlake and Pico Union 

Pulgarcito Family Restaurant 
2500 W. Pico Blvd.
This family-owned restaurant serves pupusas, quesabirria and plato de dirria, along with camarones a la diabla, plátanos fritos with beans and crema and many more Salvadorean meals. They also have cold drinks and multiple screens for the game. More information can be found here.

Casa Gish Bac Cocina Oaxaqueña                                                                                 1436 S. Vermont Ave. 
The Oaxacan restaurant will be showing the games on multiple TVs as well as on a projector. Happy hour is from 2-6pm right before kickoff. Deals include $5 beers and $2 tacos. They’re also sweetening the celebrations with a free shot with every Mexico goal. More information can be found here.

Huicho’s Bakery                                                                                                                 1250 Vermont Ave.
The local bakery will be showing the game outside of their shop on one TV. They offer a variety of Central American and Mexican food as well as pastries and bread.

Xecul Restaurante Guatemalteco
1051 S. Alvarado St.
The Guatemalan restaurant will show the game on two TVs indoors. They offer a wide variety of traditional Guatemalan flavors like their El Shuco Xecul as well as mixed fusion plates like Chowmein mixto.

Sol Agave
800 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite A130
For a more relaxed atmosphere this restaurant serves upscale Mexican cuisine and will be showing the game with TVs around their bar and dining areas. Margaritas and drink specials will be served.

Cafe con Ron
819 S. Flower St.
The Mexican seafood and brunch location will be hosting the game with TVs around their cantina area. They offer fish tacos as well as quesabirria and drink specials. More information can be found here.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday agreed to pay $9.6 million to the family of a man fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies in Compton in 2020 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

The unusually large settlement came amid claims Samuel Herrera Jr. was unarmed, targeted by deputies because he was Mexican American and that the deputies involved were part of a law enforcement gang.

The shooting was the subject of a rare coroner's inquest in 2021 — one of three conducted amid widespread criticism of law enforcement shooting in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That inquest did not conclude deputies acted wrongfully.

A review by the District Attorney also determined the deputies acted within the law.

But a civil rights lawsuit filed by Herrera’s family claims deputies acted with negligence.

“This lawsuit concerns the outrageous and unlawful use of deadly force by county deputies and officers, as well as their malicious effort to distort the true facts of their own misconduct,” the lawsuit states. Herrera posed no threat to deputies, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Herrera’s two minor sons and minor daughter.

While the county admitted no wrongdoing, it's not unusual for the county to settle a lawsuit if they believe the damages could be higher if they lost in a jury trial.

A Corrective Action report issued by county lawyers laying out a chronology of events appeared to contradict the lawsuit’s allegations. It also said the use of force and tactical actions employed by some deputies were inconsistent with established policy, practice and training. Contributing factors included deficiencies in coordination, use of cover, communication, and target acquisition.

What the County Counsel report said

Deputies were serving an early morning search warrant on a house where Herrera, 41, was believed to be selling methamphetamine, according to a report by the County Counsel’s office. The report said Herrera was also believed to carry a gun when he sold drugs.

The deputies ended up outside a back garage where Herrera was inside. What happened next was a series of shootings by deputies.

The County Counsel said deputies heard gunshots from the garage and shot at one of the side doors when they thought they saw the barrel of a gun. When a second door opened, deputies fired again. A short time later a fire broke out in the garage, according to the report.

Herrera eventually crawled out of a hole in the garage and “paced back and forth, then turned to the left and made a sudden movement, as if to shoot at the deputies,” the County Counsel report said. Deputies opened fire.

Deputies fired “another volley of gunfire” as Herrera lay wounded on the ground, believing he was reaching for a gun. Herrera was hit by bullets 10 times, according to the medical examiner.

An AR-15 magazine and .45 Glock handgun magazine were found directly next to him, according to the report.

What the lawsuit said

The lawsuit by Herrera’s family claimed he was unarmed at the time of the shooting and said that he did not pose an “objectively reasonable threat” to anyone. It noted deputies opened fire on the garage while Herrera’s brother and a woman and child were still inside. Herrera’s brother Jesus suffered a gunshot wound.

Deputies “through the exercise of reasonable and due diligence, should have known that minors, infants, women and other unintended targets of their raid,” would be on the property.

The lawsuit also claimed Herrera and the others were targeted because they are Mexican American and that the deputies were part of a law enforcement gang.

The lawsuit states the shooting was “part of the county’s long-standing custom, habit, and practice of promoting certain gang-like clique members of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department who wear matching tattoos, and engage in initiation rites including using deadly force, seemingly as a part of some gang initiation-like rite, in an unreasonable or excessive manner against Black and Brown men in Los Angeles County.”

The lawsuit does not name the deputies that might have been involved.

A Loyola Law School report documents the existence of at least 18 different deputy gangs and cliques over the last five decades, such as the Banditos, Executioners, and Regulators.

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department said it does not tolerate any gang-like behavior and “is actively addressing the long-standing issue of law enforcement gangs and is holding personnel accountable for misconduct related to gang like actions.”

The statement also said the department “categorically rejects any suggestion that our deputies target individuals based on race or ethnicity. Such allegations are inconsistent with our policies, training, oversight, and our commitment to constitutional policing.”

In a video reviewing the incident released shortly after the shooting, the unnamed narrator said deputies found a loaded AK-47 assault weapon and loaded handgun inside the garage. That video contains audio, still photos of the scene and text on screen, but no video.

California can continue its long-held policy of allowing transgender student athletes to play on girls’ and women’s sports teams, under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued Tuesday.

“With this ruling, schools and states like California can continue to adopt inclusive policies that ensure every student is treated with dignity and respect,” Tony Hoang, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality California said. “Inclusive policies are working across the country, including here in California, where transgender young people have participated in school sports for years without incident.”

The court’s 6-3 decision allows – but doesn’t require – states to bar transgender student athletes from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams, upholding state laws in Idaho and West Virginia. Including California, 23 states let transgender students play on teams that align with their gender identity.

Proponents of a ban also celebrated the court’s ruling, saying it’s a major step forward in their fight to keep transgender athletes out of girls sports, and it potentially opens the door to restrictions in the future.

“The Supreme Court just delivered a major victory for girls and for common sense,” said Sonja Shaw, a Chino Valley Unified school board member who’s running for state superintendent. She added that “California should be leading the nation in protecting girls, not forcing them to surrender their rights … We will continue fighting until every girl has the opportunity to compete on a level playing field.”

California, an epicenter of the LGBTQ rights movement, has long maintained policies that protect transgender students in K-12 schools. The California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees high school sports in the state, also allows transgender students to play on sports teams that align with their gender identity.

Nationwide, LGBTQ advocates decried the court’s ruling as a blow to transgender peoples’ rights generally, especially in states that currently restrict – or are leaning toward restrictions of – those rights.

“The SCOTUS majority decision furthers the Trump administration’s widespread attack on civil rights protections and continued attempt to erase transgender individuals from society, including through distorted interpretation of law,” said Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates. “(We) will continue fighting for trans equality and trans rights.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.