Before moving to Los Angeles, chef Adrian Forte was living on the beach, working as a private chef, and “semi-retired,” as he tells L.A. TACO. Tomorrow he’s opening Lucia, an ambitious, upscale Caribbean restaurant on Fairfax Avenue, for which the chef moved to the West Coast to run.
“We don't really have a Per Se or, like, a French Laundry, or any restaurant like that where Black and brown chefs can go and learn how to cook this type of food high-level,” he says. “It wasn't about coming to Hollywood or getting the nice, warm weather, because I had nice, warm weather where I was. It was more so about creating an institution and having people come and learn how to cook this food and be able to go off and, you know, eventually do their own thing. For me, it's very purpose-driven.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Forte moved to New York as a teen before eventually settling in Ontario, Canada, where he worked at Cafe Boulud and was a semi-finalist on Top Chef Canada. His work has led him to serve as a private chef for stars like Drake, Alicia Keys, and Virgil Abloh.