Hi, I’m Justin 👋
I’m a chef, creator and entrepreneur based out of Seattle, WA.
I’m obsessed with high-quality gear, memorable dining experiences, and building practical resources that truly help.
To keep working in my zone, I spend most of my time building and running Repertoire, the modern hospitality education company that I founded in 2022. I get to speak with some of the best in the business on my weekly podcast, write to hungry professionals in a Friday newsletter, and create educational products like courses, workshops and more.
🔪 My Training
After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America in 2012, I spent 8+ years training at Michelin-Starred and critically acclaimed restaurants. I thought, for years, that I wanted to go for Michelin stars of my own, so I worked my way up different brigades until I became an executive sous chef.
I worked and staged at Per Se, Grace, The French Laundry, Frantzen, Noma, and Lysverket, among others.
Shoutout to Bonjwing Lee for many of these photographs.
🍽 Pop-Ups & Events
When I moved to Seattle, I started hosting pop-up dinners around the city. I needed to figure out what “my food” looked like, and create separately from a restaurant concept or another chef’s menu.
I soon met a business partner and came on as Co-Founder of Voyager’s Table: a bespoke event production company. I led the Culinary Program through 2021, when I transitioned into an active board member and advisor.
📸 Content Creator
I’ve always loved cameras. From participating in film photography competitions in high school to capturing favorite moments during my travels as an adult, I adore telling visual stories.
In 2015, I made my first upload to my YouTube channel. It required a ton of courage and way too many hours of online tutorials on “how to edit video”. But once I saw what was possible with video and social media, I was hooked.
In a lot of ways, I see content creation like cooking. Get the best ingredients you can (footage/images), use time and skills to transform them (editing & post-processing), and share the results with friends and family (publish).
Help the Next Generation
From there, every project orbited around the goal of helping the next generation of chefs.
I used different mediums to provide free-to-consume content that I wish I had when I was an ambitious culinary school student:
The Emulsion Podcast (now The Repertoire Podcast)
The 80/20 Edge Newsletter (now The Repertoire Newsletter)
Dish of the Day
Advice videos & tutorials
One-on-one coaching & mentorship
Digital downloads of templated resources
The audience grew to over 50,000 followers.
Current Work
These days, my attention is focused towards the Projects listed on this page.
The goal is to build businesses that:
Impact with scale
Profit sustainably
Operate with integrity
If you’d like to learn more about courses, workshops, and content through Repertoire that I’m building for the hospitality industry, visit here.
I accept a limited number of coaching and consulting engagements per quarter.
You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, or you can send me an email.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a good one,
👊Justin