The Banter

The Guys chat about the fact that sometimes you have to put on pants.

The Conversation

The Restaurant Guys and Antonia Lofaso bond over common experiences such as using donuts to get through the 14 hour days of opening a new restaurant. The most recent champion of Tournament of Champions talks about kitchen fires, chefwear and how it feels to impress chefs she admires.

The Inside Track

The Guys find a soulmate in Antonia Lofaso. All of them value hard work and loyalty that they have been fortunate enough to find in their staff.

“So many great chefs that have worked with me have started as dishwashers, busboys line cooks, prep guys have all come up through the ranks and now run the restaurants.

That's the way all the restaurants have been built. The loyalty of them staying with me and wanting to produce great food day after day, started with a culture that I built in the restaurants,” Antonia Lofaso on The Restaurant Guys 2025

Bio

Antonia Lofaso is a chef and co-owner of Black Market Liquor Bar, Scopa Italian Roots, and DAMA in Los Angeles and The Local Peasant in Woodland Hills and Sherman Oaks.

She has been in numerous television shows including competing on several iterations of Top Chef and Tournament of Champions, and judging on Cutthroat Kitchen. She was featured in the documentaries Restaurant Hustle 2020: All On The Line, and its sequel Restaurant Hustle 2021: Back In Business about how the COVID-19 crisis impacted restaurants.