Chef Cole Lawson

Chef Cole Lawson

Cole Lawson is a Black, queer chef, culinary producer, and strategist whose work is rooted in Creole tradition and shaped by global movement. Her cooking explores the intersections of memory, land, and liberation—using whole food, seasonal ingredients, and ancestral knowledge to build dishes that carry history while imagining something new.

Based in Los Angeles, Cole leads with care and systems thinking—equally at home in the intensity of service as she is in the long arc of cultural storytelling. Through her leadership at Fork n Film, she has opened immersive dining experiences across the U.S. and internationally. Through her private chef and consulting practice, she’s crafted food journeys that support performance, healing, and joy.

Her story began with plant-based cooking and evolved into a lifelong study of how food shapes bodies, communities, and futures. Cole’s approach blends her knowledge of nutrition and herbalism with the rigor of fine dining technique, all while staying grounded in her Black Southern roots. She honors the foods that raised her—and the people who preserved them—with every course she serves.

She is also the founder of SafeHaus, a platform for culinary storytelling, wellness education, and community activation that prioritizes sustainability, flavor, and access.

Cole is in a constant process of learning and remembering. Her work invites us to the table not just to eat—but to listen, reflect, and return to what feeds us most.