Restaurant & Culinary Consulting in Los Angeles

Practical culinary strategy for independent restaurants, hospitality groups, new openings, and growing food concepts. Chef Marco brings more than 15 years of kitchen and multi-unit leadership—including 12 restaurant openings—to menu development, recipe systems, costing, sourcing, operations, training, and pizza programs.

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Chef hand-finishing a plated salad during menu development and culinary consulting.

From Concept to Service

  • Clarify the culinary point of view, target guest, menu architecture, and signature items that make a concept memorable and operable. Work can include competitive positioning, menu ideation, tastings, recipe development, sourcing, and launch-ready menu documentation.

  • Turn good food into a repeatable business with standardized recipes, yields, prep systems, food-cost analysis, purchasing guidance, station organization, quality controls, and service workflows tailored to your kitchen and team.

  • Support a new opening, reset, or growth phase with kitchen planning, vendor and equipment input, pre-opening production, team training, service rehearsals, and hands-on launch support. Specialized pizza development can cover dough, fermentation, ovens, workflow, and consistency.

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SELECTED RESTAURANT OPENINGS

Built in the pressure of real openings.

Chef Marco has helped open 12 restaurants across Copenhagen, Napa Valley, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Santa Barbara—from Michelin-starred and World’s 50 Best kitchens to ambitious independent concepts and large-scale hospitality operations.

Beast + Bounty · Sacramento

108 · Copenhagen — Noma’s sister restaurant

The Charter Oak · St. Helena — from The Restaurant at Meadowood team

Allora · Sacramento

Scott’s Seafood on the River · Sacramento

The Ellwood · Goleta / Santa Barbara

Park Tavern · San Francisco

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Consulting, Answered

  • Engagements are designed for independent restaurants, hospitality groups, hotels, food halls, chefs, investors, operators, and emerging concepts that need experienced culinary leadership without immediately adding a full-time executive hire.

  • Projects may be focused advisory sessions, menu development sprints, operational audits, opening support, team training, or longer implementation engagements. The structure depends on the problem, timeline, and level of hands-on support required.

  • Deliverables may include menu architecture, tested recipes, yields and costing, sourcing recommendations, prep systems, kitchen workflows, training plans, opening checklists, quality standards, and an implementation roadmap. The exact output is defined before work begins.

  • Both are possible. Strategy, reviews, costing, and documentation can often begin remotely, while tastings, operational assessments, training, and openings benefit from on-site work. Travel requirements are scoped in the proposal.

  • A focused review may take a few sessions, while a menu overhaul, opening, or operational reset can span several weeks or months. After the initial inquiry and discovery conversation, you receive a recommended scope, timeline, and fee structure.

  • Complete the restaurant consulting inquiry with your concept, location, current stage, goals, and desired timeline. Chef Marco will review the brief and follow up to determine fit, priorities, and the most useful next step.