Image - the speakers
San Francisco

Savor San Francisco: Chefs, Stories, and Bites

Buy Tickets

Not yet a member? Now is the time to join. Members receive ticket discounts, free events, special programs, our travel program, early notice of big events, and more; plus, your membership helps sustain our nonprofit organization's work. You can become a monthly sustaining member for just $13 a month.

Recognized as one of the nation’s top food destinations, San Francisco’s culinary scene thrives on fresh, local ingredients, diverse cultural influences, and a constant drive to innovate. Chefs here are known for pushing boundaries, blending tradition with creativity to deliver unforgettable dining experiences.

Tonight’s program showcases acclaimed chefs from some of the city’s most beloved restaurants. They’ll share their journeys—how they became chefs and restaurateurs, the challenges they’ve faced, and memorable moments from their kitchens. 

Each chef will also treat us to small bites, making this an evening that’s both inspiring and delicious.

About the Speakers

Gayle Pirie and John Clark are the chef-owners of Foreign Cinema. They've worked at the legendary Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse and have received multiple James Beard Award nominations for: Best Chef: Pacific and Outstanding Restaurant. In 2010, Pirie was inducted into Les Dames d'Escoffier International. John Clark is a builder, a jeweler, and vintage Italian car collector/enthusiast, overseeing multiple restorations of the couples' car collection. The chefs published three cookbooks, Country Egg, City Egg (2000), Bride and Groom (2005), and the Foreign CInema Cookbook (2018). 

Matthew Accarrino is the executive chef/owner of SPQR and Mattina. Accarrino’s distinctive culinary style draws from his Italian heritage, personal journey, and classical training under some of America’s most acclaimed chefs. In California, he takes full advantage of the region’s exceptional ingredients, with a strong commitment to direct sourcing, producing, and even helping create ingredients himself. The result is an intensely personal cuisine—technically refined yet soulful—that has earned praise from Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco magazine, and Michelin. In 2009, Matthew took the helm at SPQR, a fine dining Cal-Italian restaurant in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights. In spring 2023, Matthew opened his second restaurant, Mattina—meaning “morning” in Italian—just around the corner from SPQR. An all-day concept, Mattina serves coffee and pastries in the morning, followed by an à la carte menu from lunch through dinner.

Laurence Jossel is a South African-born, San Francisco-based chef and restaurateur known for his deep commitment to seasonal, sustainable, farm-focused cuisine. His culinary philosophy centers on honesty, simplicity, and a deep respect for the natural cycle of local ingredients. This approach has shaped his career and contributed to his enduring presence in the Bay Area’s ever-evolving food landscape. In 2006, he co-founded Nopa, a celebrated restaurant known for its whole butchery program and seasonal, wood-fired menu. In June 2025, he opened Nopa Fish, a fish market and casual kitchen located in San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building.

Stuart Brioza, chef & founder/owner. With his wife and collaborator, the celebrated pastry chef Nicole Krasinski, Stuart co-owns several modern-day icons of San Francisco’s vaunted culinary scene: State Bird Provisions, The Progress, and The Anchovy Bar. Stuart characterizes his honest & bold cooking style as an evolution of California Cuisine, which is to seek out the best examples of organic ingredients in season and respecting their integrity through a cooking process defined by technique and creativity. His kitchens source Northern California's incomparable ingredients (such as quail, anchovies, oysters, seaweeds & wild mushrooms), producing a culinary repertoire that highlights seasonal abundance, preservation, smoking, fermentation & most notably lessening the gap in "zero waste" cooking. Mentorship, collaboration & management "idea workshops" are examples of how Stuart and his restaurants continue to hone in on goals and continue to have a significant influence on the greater conversation around food and hospitality.

Before she was a pastry chef, Nicole was an art student who baked bread. When she got into the School of Art Institute of Chicago, she moved to the Windy City. And when she needed a job to pay for school, she found a little bakery in Wicker Park called Red Hen Bread. Three weeks into her time there, she realized that getting paid to do something she loved beat paying to learn something she wasn't even sure she liked. When Red Hen's owner and head baker Nancy Carey told her she was a recovering fine artist who found her way into a life of wheat and yeast, her path became a model for Nicole. Nicole and Stuart were hired at Rubicon in San Francisco, and she kept refining her technical skills as a pastry chef. This is where she discovered the pain and pleasure of making true French macarons, which would end up being the inspiration behind State Bird's now-signature ice cream sandwiches. That style continues to resonate and grow with her pastry teams at The Progress and The Anchovy Bar, all while discovering individuality and singularity in each restaurant.

Hi Neighbor Hospitality Group partner Ryan Cole started working in restaurants at the age of 15. One of his first jobs was with James Beard-award-winning Kentucky chef Ouita Michel. Showing a natural talent for cooking, he quickly earned a spot in her restaurant as a line cook. That early kitchen experience served as an inspiration for his restaurant career and was the first of many high-profile connections and well-timed opportunities. Cole attended Boston University, where he pursued a dual degree in finance and hotel & restaurant administration. While attending school, he cooked at Esquire's Best New Restaurant, Anago Bistro, and taught cooking classes at the university as well. He won the prestigious Kopf wine scholarship that gave him an extraordinary opportunity to work in some of California, France and Italy’s top restaurants and wineries. In 2013, Cole left The Mina Group after 5 years to embark on his first solo venture, opening Stones Throw in Russian Hill. Following an enormously successful opening, he then opened Trestle, changing the landscape for affordable fine dining in San Francisco. Named Restaurateurs of the Year by San Francisco magazine and the GGRA, and a rising star from StarChefs, this was the beginning of Hi Neighbor Hospitality. Today, Hi Neighbor has expanded its management operations to include MAMA Oakland, The Vault Garden, The Vault Steakhouse, Trestle, Jack & Remi, and 7 Adams.

Organizer
Patty James
Notes

This program is in-person only. If you have symptoms of illness (coughing, fever, etc.), we ask that you either stay home or wear a mask. Our front desk has complimentary masks for members and guests who would like one.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is a nonprofit public forum; we welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our programming.

A Nutrition, Food & Wellness Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

Photos courtesy the speakers; Accarrino photo by Steve West; Krasinski and Brioza photo by Adam Brioza.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs is a public forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs.

All ticket sales are final and nonrefundable.

Thu, Sep 18 / 5:30 PM PDT

The Commonwealth Club of California
110 The Embarcadero
Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States

Speakers
Image - Gayle Pirie

Gayle Pirie

Co-owner, Foreign Cinema

Image - John Clark

John Clark

Co-owner, Foreign Cinema

Image - Matthew Accarrino

Matthew Accarrino

Executive Chef/Owner, SPQR and Mattina 

Image - Laurence Jossel

Laurence Jossel

Chef and Owner, Nopa and Nopa Fish

Image - Nicole Krasinski

Nicole Krasinski

Nicole Krasinski, Pastry Chef & Founder/Owner, State Bird Provisions, The Progress and The Anchovy Bar

Image - Stuart Brioza

Stuart Brioza

Chef & Founder/Owner, State Bird Provisions, The Progress and The Anchovy Bar

Image - Ryan Cole

Ryan Cole

Partner, Hi Neighbor Hospitality Group 

Image - Patty James

Introduction by: Patty James

Chief Innovation Officer, Foogal; Co-chair, Nutrition, Food & Wellness Member-led Forum,  Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California—Moderator

Format

5 p.m. doors open & check-in
5:30–6:30 p.m program
6:30 p.m. book signing & appetizers reception
(all times Pacific Time)

COST

Members receive 30–50 percent discounts (not a member? Join)

In-person:
$22
Free for Leadership Circle members and for students