Dalida | Mediterranean Restaurant in San Francisco, CA

Originally from Mexico, Laura has been immersed in the culinary world since an early age. She attended Centro Culinario Ambrosia in Mexico City and continued her education at New York’s Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Following her time at CIA, she worked at prestigious restaurants Café Boulud, Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain while simultaneously enrolling at the Basque Culinary Center. Upon her graduation from the CIA, Laura accepted an offer at Eleven Madison Park in New York City and later at Del Posto. In San Francisco, where Laura joined Saison’s team. She continued to focus on her business doing private events, consulting and teaching classes part time at The Culinary Institute of America.

Originally from Istanbul, Turkey, Sayat earned an Economics degree at Dartmouth College in his early twenties. He then worked in analytics and demand planning, and as a management consultant but it wasn’t until a solo trip through Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia that Sayat began to think about cooking professionally. Sayat enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York City where he met his wife and business partner Laura . While at CIA, he worked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and joined the Le Bernardin team upon graduation. Sayat worked as the Executive Chef of the CIA  Copia, running a multi-channel conference center and venue with several restaurants.

Evan has been bartending in the Bay for over a decade and a half, cutting his teeth at Hard Water, The Beehive, and the James Beard “Outstanding Bar Program” awarded Bar Agricole, among many others. He has worked in bars from Moscow to Bangkok in the intervening years and brings his love of international hospitality to everything he does.

Ruth began her career in restaurants shortly after graduating high school, which quickly sparked a lifelong love of hospitality. At 22 she signed up for her 1st sommelier course and decided then that she would pursue it full-time. Starting out as a server at Aster, she was then connected with the Wine and Spirits magazine office and began interning there while continuing her studies. From there she began working as a sommelier at Salt House and eventually began working as a Sommelier at Michelin-starred Mourad, while also working part-time at the then newly opened Verve wine shop. During the pandemic, she began working with wine distributor Revel and moved to McMinnville, Oregon to help open HiFi wine bar as the lead sommelier. After returning to the Bay area, she spent some time working at The Progress before coming on board as the wine director for Dalida.