CHEF’S LAB
Buy your tickets now to the most happening event in Harlem. Great food, great music, great people, creating great impact. Proceeds of Chefs Lab support our efforts to feed 3 course meals every week with dignity and love, reducing issues of food insecurity, food waste and social isolation in the process.
Viva Comida: The Influence of Mexico and North American Indigenous Cuisine
May 5th, 630pm
The influence runs deep. From the Pueblos in Arizona, to our music, the flavors in our food. Bringing together the mad scientist Chef Russell Jackson of Reverence and Chef Kayla Phillips of Reffetorio Harlem
Ticket Price $125 pp, $105 early bird first 7 days on sale.
More About the Chefs:
Long before Chef Russell Jackson became a Harlem fixture, he cut his teeth at crafting a menu based on Patricia Quintana’s El Sabor de Mexico for a trendy Los Angeles Restaurant in the 80’s, Rebeccas of Venice Beach and Border Grill of Hollywood California.
His life long passion for SoCal Mexican cuisine followed him to Harlem’s Reverence where his Black Barley Molé had a cult following and Regional Mexican influenced items consistently made their way onto the menu.
Jackson achieved notoriety and amassed a cult following through his seminal restaurant creation, SubCulture Dining, a radical underground supper-club in San Francisco and Zagat rated restaurant LafitteSF. SubCulture Dining, known by devotees as SCD, broke culinary boundaries and earned Jackson his reputation as the Dissident Chef.
His zero waste approach at Reverence was something of legend, taking food scraps and waste from his meals to craft Amino Acids, Miso, hot sauce, pastry dough and more. Also an activist and board member for One Fair Wage and the Independent Restaurant Coalition as well as a senior Board member of the Bronx WHEDco.
Chef Kayla Phillips
Before joining Amanda Cohen’s kitchen at Dirt Candy, Chef Kayla grew up in Phoenix, Arizona surrounded by Mexican and Indigenous communities and their food. At 22, she moved to New York City to pursue her culinary dreams of combining food with different art mediums. She has also worked with Ghetto Gastro, a Bronx-based culinary collective, to cook for events from The Recording Academy Honors to Frieze LA. She joined the Refettorio Harlem team in March 2025.
Chef’s Lab is a monthly series of collaborative dinners and seasonal soireés blending music, art and food at Refettorio Harlem to raise awareness and support for Free Food Harlem’s mission. Refettorio Harlem is a collaboration inside and among Free Food, The EMANUEL AME historic Church, and the global nonprofit Food for Soul founded by chef Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore. Proceeds from the event support Free Food’s programs to prevent food waste and social isolation among Harlem’s neighborhoods.
The Harlem Chef’s Lab Series has featured culinary talents and collaborations, including chefs: Russell Jackson, Anthony Mangieri, J.J. Johnson, Nadav Greenberg, Aliyyah Baylor, Vijay Kumar, Jimmy Thomas, Asia Shabazz, Nino and Bilena Settepani, Eric Tran, Cortney Burns and many more.
“Refettorio Harlem has set up a beautiful operation to feed those in need.”
Chef P - Ghetto Gastro
photo credit: Argenis Apolinario
Future dates include:
June 2nd
July 28th
August 25th
September 29th
October 27th
November 17th
