An intrepid entrepreneur with more than two decades in the restaurant industry, Sylvie Gabriele brings deep managerial experience and a sharp business acumen to her ownership role at Love & Salt. Under her leadership, the Italian-inspired restaurant has generated renewed energy in Los Angeles' South Bay — a community that was home to Love & Salt's predecessor, Cafe Pierre for 37 years. In conjunction with her father, Guy Gabriele, Sylvie spearheaded the physical and conceptual transformation of the SoCal icon and its eventual rebirth as Love & Salt, working closely with MASS Architecture and designer Ana Henton to bring her vision for the new restaurant to life.

Since the opening in late 2014, Love & Salt has garnered critical acclaim for the reinvention, as well as the restaurant’s SoCal interpretation of Italian cuisine, including recognition as one of Los Angeles Magazine's top ten new restaurants of 2015. That same year Forbes described the evolution as "L.A.'s Best Restaurant Comeback Story.”

Sylvie’s fastidious approach to managing all aspects of the restaurant — from the warm service to the branding and creative marketing — have contributed to Love & Salt’s continued growth and success as a mainstay not solely in Manhattan Beach, but in Los Angeles proper. 

In addition to her role overseeing operations at Love & Salt, Sylvie, who has an M.B.A. in Finance & Marketing from Loyola Marymount and is a licensed real estate broker, is conceptualizing the managerial team's next venture, a Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant. Informed by the principles that birthed Farm Stand, a trailblazing restaurant within the Non- GMO Project that Sylvie founded and ran with her husband Alex Mosavi in El Segundo from 2005 to 2016. The restaurant will serve conscious, cross-cultural cuisine that is grounded by the team's diverse heritages.

Born in Tunisia to Italian parents and raised in France, Guy Gabriele’s nearly 40-year hospitality career is informed by his multi-cultural upbringing + heritage. Born into a family with over half a century of industry experience, Guy grew up surrounded by the elegance and tradition of the French culinary world. As a child, he worked by his father's side in his butcher shop, learning butchering techniques while simultaneously going to school. Guy went on to graduate from the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management in Assisi, Italy before honing his craft at the celebrated Grand Hotel in Rome and the Westminster Hotel in Nice.  With that valuable experience to his name, Guy moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA.

Though he finished with a masters in comparative literature at UCLA with plans to become a professor, it wasn’t long before Guy was drawn back into the restaurant world where he always felt most at home. He opened Cafe Pierre in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, a restaurant that was revered for its contemporary interpretation of classic French cuisine. While a staple in the South Bay for nearly 37 years, Guy and his daughter Sylvie closed Cafe Pierre in April 2014 to make way for its eventual rebirth as Love & Salt. In addition to his partnership role at Love & Salt, Guy continues to oversee operations at Gabi James in Redondo Beach, a newly reimagined restaurant that originally opened as Zazou serving Provençal and Tuscan cuisine to the community for 20 years.

Christopher Feldmeier began cooking as a child when he simply asked his mother to make breakfast. She replied by saying, “I will buy you anything you want to cook, but you are going to make it yourself.” That first breakfast sparked a passion and adoration for cooking, which grew into an undeniable desire to learn more. Feldmeier then began to cook with his grandmother who became his first mentor, and ultimately, his culinary influence. After traveling through Europe in his early twenties, Feldmeier returned to the United States and enrolled at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in his home state of Arizona. There, he received his degree in Culinary Arts, and decided to move to San Diego where he would begin his career in fine dining as Tournant and Assistant General Manager at the renowned Nine-Ten Restaurant.

Searching for a more dynamic culinary landscape, Feldmeier relocated to Los Angeles and began working at the former Campanile restaurant. He quickly moved into a Sous Chef position, spending four years working collaboratively with seminal Los Angeles chefs Nancy Silverton and Mark Peel at the legendary establishment. During his tenure at Campanile, Feldmeier met his wife, James Beard award-winning pastry chef Dahlia Narvaez, as well as his future business partner David Rosoff.

In 2007, Feldmeier left Campanile to join Silverton, Narvaez and Rosoff in opening the Michelin-starred Osteria Mozza. Feldmeier served as the Chef de Cuisine of this award-winning institution and consultant to Eataly until his departure in 2013 to pursue his own concept with Rosoff. After becoming immersed in Spanish culture and its gastronomic implications, in January of 2016, Feldmeier and Rosoff opened Moruno at The Original Farmers Market. Early on, the highly-accoladed spot received a 3-star review from LA Weekly food critic Besha Rodell while former New York Times Food Critic and Gourmet Magazine editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl praised Feldmeier’s food as “spectacular”. In October of 2016, Moruno unfortunately closed, and Feldmeier moved on to consult Joe Bastianich on the opening of the rapidly expanding Eataly brand across the country. 

With his passion for culinary innovation, Feldmeier subsequently partnered with the Gabriele family to begin conceptualizing the next iteration of Guy’s beloved Redondo Beach restaurant, Zazou which re-opened as Gabi James in April 2018 boasting a menu featuring Spanish and Coastal French cuisine infused with California soul. 

In September 2018, Feldmeier assumed the role of executive chef at Love & Salt in Manhattan Beach. In this role, Feldmeier works closely with Love & Salt owner Sylvie Gabriele to bring their shared vision for the Italian-inspired menu to life.

Tracey Harada inherited her passion for food from her mother’s own love for cooking--or more accurately, her mother’s propensity to incessantly cook for those she loves. Italian, French, Korean, prime rib, carne asada, meat loaf. A byproduct of her surroundings, Tracey’s childhood was deeply rooted in a food culture that she’s never lost.  

Born and raised as a 4th generation Japanese-Chinese American, Tracey grew up in L.A.’s Silverlake enclave. While she originally set out on a more traditional career path, attending UCLA and majoring in economics, her instincts told her this wasn’t her true calling. Still, she graduated, picked up miscellaneous jobs, and traveled across Europe. While searching for what was next, she spent that summer with the Patina Group, learning the ropes as a pantry cook at both the Hollywood Bowl and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. 

It wasn’t long before she got a call from prolific cookbook author, Carrolyn Carreño, who was testing recipes for the The Mozza Cookbook. While coming into the restaurant to pick up ingredients for the book, Tracey caught the eye of Nancy Silverton who offered her a position at Osteria Mozza. She finessed her culinary acumen, building dishes at the Mozzarella bar, flipping hand-shaped pastas, and working the wood fire grill. High standards and long days nurtured in her a passion for the tradition and simplicity of Italian food. That dedication saw her promoted to sous chef at a new Pizzeria Mozza in San Diego. 

From there, Tracey made the journey back to Los Angeles to help open Chef Bryant Ng’s Cassia by the Rustic Canyon Group. There, she was an instrumental part of the kitchen for the next three and a half years, helping usher in an era where Cassia went from rising star to a permanent fixture in LA’s culinary landscape. If Mozza gave Tracey her culinary chops and the deep respect for Italian food, Cassia taught her the importance of cooking food that speaks volumes about your heritage, and finding the balance between what chefs consider their life and work.

At Love & Salt, Tracey has marked her return to Italian fare, again collaborating with Chris Feldmeier and tapping into his vast knowledge of both the cuisine and restaurant management. It’s the newest chapter in a partnership that stretches to the early days where her first task was to toast the La Brea bread at the Mozzarella Bar. Through this position, Tracey is revisiting her professional culinary roots, now armed with a breadth of relevant experience. 

A seasoned hospitality professional, Nash Yoshimura is the General Manager of Love & Salt, the Manhattan Beach dining destination from father-daughter team Guy and Sylvie Gabriele and Chef Christopher Feldmeier.  After spending his formative years watching his mom and grandma in the kitchen, Yoshimura was first introduced to the restaurant industry when he took a position as food and beverage manager at Angeles National Golf Club in Sunland.  

From there, he took his expertise to Innovative Dining Group where he served in management positions at Sushi Roku locations across Southern California from Santa Monica to West Hollywood to Pasadena.  During his time there, he honed his operational skills while simultaneously creating memorable, welcoming experiences for each guest who entered the restaurants.  

After more than a decade with the company, Yoshimura feels honored to now have the opportunity to work at Love & Salt near his home base of Torrance where he lives with his wife and two children.  Upon meeting Sylvie, Guy and Chris, he was immediately drawn to the team’s commitment to taking care of people by creating a welcoming environment, much like a home.  For Yoshimura, it’s a return to his roots as the open kitchen format reminds him of watching his own mom and grandma cook throughout his childhood.  In addition to continually being inspired by the culinary team, he has a strong appreciation of the sense of community that emanates through the restaurant.  When not spending time with his family Nash can often be found at the gym, a sign of his commitment to health and fitness that harkens back to his college years when he obtained an Associate of Arts in Physical Education at Orange Coast College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology from California State Fullerton.  

Since she was a child, Jennifer Hill’s mother has always said she had the “gift of gab.”

She fostered this gift, and developed a passion for connecting with people that led her to begin a career in hospitality. Starting as a hostess at the prestigious Hotel Bel Air, Hill would move on to work at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro Beverly Hills for 8 years, where she grew within the organization developing as their Guest Relations Manager and eventually became the Dining Room Manager. She credits her approach to hospitality and work ethic to her time at Bouchon, with a philosophy of taking care of guests as if you were hosting them in your own home, with the understanding that food and dining can be remarkably personal experiences. Nothing brings her more joy than to motivate her staff and build a nurturing restaurant culture, which she actively does at Love & Salt today.

Erin Laurie has been in the hospitality industry for over 14 years working front of house from server to bar manager. She has always been surrounded by great seasonal produce living in the East Coast in Baltimore and New York. She would experiment making purees, syrups, and other infusions from what she forages or what local farmers would drop off to her at the bar. She is passionate about crafting cocktails and creating an experience for guests that is an extension of home. On her down time you can find her cuddling with her cats or finding zen on her yoga mat.