Celebrity chef, author and restaurateur Antonia Lofaso might be known for winning TV cooking challenges, but she was once a single mom, simply hoping to land a job in a restaurant.
Lofaso visited on behalf of the Miami University lecture series, which brings in celebrities to give a talk of their choosing a couple of times a semester.
She started her lecture on Sept. 29 with an acknowledgement of her “success out of necessity.”
“I think for me, as a woman and as a businesswoman, that when I talk about ‘success out of necessity,’ I mean really going for it and creating a life that I could be proud of,” Lofaso said. “I became successful because, in my mind, I needed to make money. There is no way I could fail.”
After graduating from culinary school, she worked for famed restaurateur Wolfgang Puck, but felt that it wasn’t the right fit for her.
“Sometimes being in the wrong environment really puts you into the perspective of being like, ‘This is not where I need to be,’” Lofaso said. “Now, for me, I left Wolfgang Puck. I went on to work for another restaurant group with the promise of opening a brand new restaurant.”
This restaurant would ultimately close in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, but Lofaso pushed through.
“I was left without a job, and every other chef that worked in the same restaurant group was like, ‘See, we knew she was a flash in the pan,’” Lofaso said.
She landed on her feet and worked as a private chef for Eddie Murphy before stepping back into the restaurant scene.
Now she runs three different restaurants, and continues to judge and compete in TV shows like ‘Top Chef” and “Guy’s Grocery Games.” Her latest success includes winning the cooking contest “Tournament of Champions.”
That kind of high-pressure lifestyle would stretch the bounds of anyone’s mental health, but Lofaso’s unique perspective on burnout helped her roll with the punches.
“I think burnouts are good,” Lofaso said. “If you're an entrepreneur, you will have burnout. You should never avoid burning out. I think burning out is part of the process. I think that the words that are used as negative are not actually negative. I believe that burning out is part of the process, and it’s going to happen, so why do we try to avoid being uncomfortable?”
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Another word Lofaso hates? Balance.
She said that sometimes she has to focus on one thing at a time, and balance doesn’t really have a place.
“There's times where I have been very honest with my daughter, and I'm like, ‘You're gonna have to wait,’” Lofaso said. “I've been very honest with my parents, and I've said, ‘You're gonna have to wait.’ I've been honest with the restaurant or my business partners and been like, ‘You're gonna have to wait.’ And so I think that I have replaced the word balance with intense communication.”
She added that anxiety is her “superpower,” and that it allows her to stay open late for restaurant openings, be a present mom and keep her energy up while she’s judging and competing in shows.
“I open restaurants because of my inability to sleep,” Lofaso said. “No matter how much I exercise and do ice baths, that’s not taking care of you. That's just paying yourself first.”
She said that life is a lot about finding the opportunities from bad situations.
“It’s the shit you grow flowers from,” Lofaso said.
For students like Molly Love, a junior political science major, Lofaso is inspiring because of her persistence in the culinary field.
Love was able to attend a pre-lecture seminar with the Honors College.
“I wanted to talk to her about blending her business side of things and her passion for food,” Love said. “I love watching chefs and hearing about the competitions, and she’s been in so many of them season after season.”
After the lecture, students like Maddie Peppo, a junior marketing major, commented on Lofaso’s journey, citing her resilience and background.
“My favorite part was her talking about being a single mom,” Peppo said. “I think that it was something that hit really close to me. It was really inspiring, especially to see what failure means to her.”
Scarlet Pisti, a high school senior from Columbus, agreed.
“I really liked her advice about failing up,” Pisti said. “It was really informative.”