about leah

Foodie beginnings...

Leah’s earliest memories revolve around food. The child of a Filipino mother and Romanian- Jewish father, Leah was raised with the traditions of both ethnic backgrounds. Her early kitchen memories include learning how to make Chicken Adobo and rolling Lumpia with her mother and helping her grandmother prepare brisket and matzo ball soup for the Jewish holidays. As she grew older, Leah’s mother entrusted her with the responsibility of preparing rice, a staple of Filipino cuisine, for the evening meal, a task she tackled upon returning home from school each day. In her spare time, Leah began experimenting cooking with the raw ingredients she found in the kitchen, creating different dishes and becoming completely enthralled by the process. After graduating from high school, Leah held a few food-focused jobs, working variously as a pizza delivery driver and as a potato-peeler at a local Italian restaurant. Since her passion for cooking remained undiminished, she decided to pursue a culinary career and in 2001 enrolled in the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.

Real-life experience...

While studying at the CIA, Leah got her first real taste of kitchen life with an externship at New York City’s Park Avenue Café, under Chef David Burke. During her time there, Leah was promoted to Hot Apps Cook – a distinct honor for a student. At Park Avenue Café, she became addicted to the rush and high pressure demands of working dinner service, and knew she had made the right career choice. 

In 2003, after graduating at the top of her class at the CIA, Leah continued her education there, receiving her bachelor’s degree in Restaurant Management. Thereafter, she enrolled in the school’s renowned Slow Foods program, which enables students to travel to Italy to learn classical and regional Italian cooking techniques. It was during her time there that she was fortunate enough to work at the Michelin-starred restaurant La Madia in Licata, Italy. While there, Leah picked up both the Italian and Sicilian languages, and, because the restaurant did not operate on the typical brigade system, she had the invaluable experience of learning how to work at each station to prepare all foods needed by the restaurant, including bread and pastry.

Returning to her roots...

In 2006, Leah moved back to New York from Italy and landed a position working as a garde manger at Daniel Humm’s famed restaurant, Eleven Madison Park. There her intense focus and dedication earned her a promotion as head tournant. Her experience working in Humm’s kitchen provided her with invaluable knowledge, and the most important lesson she walked away with was don’t ever send anything out that’s less than perfect. Appreciative of the experience but longing to travel, Leah left Eleven Madison Park to tour the Philippines. It was during this trip she came to the realization that fine dining was not her calling and realized that a more casual style of dining was a better fit for her.

Upon returning to New York, Leah accepted a job as sous chef at Centro Vinoteca under Chef Anne Burrell. Attracted by the restaurant’s open kitchen and Anne’s progressive Italian fare, the experience was especially invaluable as it afforded the opportunity to work under a female chef for the first time. There, Leah learned the fundamentals of leading a team, including ordering, scheduling, and preparing lists. Six months into her tenure at Centro Vinoteca, Leah was approached by casting executives at Bravo’s “Top Chef,” and landed a spot on the show’s fifth season. The show redefined the phrase “cooking under pressure” for Leah, as it was the first time she had been called upon to prepare dishes that reflected her own style and philosophy – and to do so under the camera’s all-seeing eye.

Asia calling...

After her departure from the show Leah returned to Centro Vinoteca and was promoted to chef de cuisine. But her time competing on “Top Chef” had not only introduced her to a national audience, it had also forced her to define her own style of cooking, and in the process she realized that Italian cuisine was not her true passion. Leah left Centro Vinoteca to spend a year exploring and working in Southeast Asia. She cooked in restaurants throughout Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, and was exposed to food in all its forms, from molecular gastronomy to Chinese cooking, and developed a true understanding of the flavors and elegant nuances of Asian food and ingredients.

Her year in Asia proved to be a defining moment, and upon her return to New York Leah decided to open her first restaurant, Pig & Khao. After testing the menu through various pop-up restaurants Leah knew she was ready and in 2012, she opened the brick-and-mortar location of Pig & Khao on New York City’s Lower East Side. Ten years later, Pig & Khao is a stand-out in New York’s crowded culinary scene.

In her most recent venture, Piggyback New York by Pig & Khao, which opened in January 2020, Leah broadened her culinary inspiration to include nearly all of Asia—from Vietnam and Myanmar to Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines—based on her immersive culinary travels throughout the continent.  Her menu at Piggyback by Pig & Khao is reflective of the traditional recipes, ingredients, and cooking techniques she learned firsthand working in kitchens throughout Asia, as she rediscovered—and brought home to NYC—the deliciously sweet, pungent, and spicy flavors of her youth.

Leah continues to find culinary inspiration through her travels, and helms the kitchen with the help of her husband, Manager of Operations for both restaurants, Ben Byruch. Ben and Leah currently reside in New Jersey with their two boys, Carter Graham and Baker Scott. You can watch Leah on her new PBS show Great American Recipe premiering June 24, 2022. 

about BEN

Ben has spent the majority of his life in the restaurant industry. With positions ranging from dishwasher to Manager of Operations, he’s become accustomed to it all. During Ben’s teenage years, his father and grandfather were the proprietors of a wholesale meats company, later taking on a sales management position for wholesale food distributorship. After high school, he attended Penn State for several years before deciding to pursue his degree from the Art Institute of Philadelphia with a concentration in Restaurant Management & Culinary Arts.

Ben spent the next several years in Philadelphia, working in various restaurant-related capacities and ultimately owning and operating his own concept. Eventually, it was time to make moves and New York was the destination. In order to make his final move to the financial management side of the business he spent 2 years working at a boutique investment bank and learning the ins and outs of managing businesses, raising capital, and dealing with investors. He then went on to re-immerse himself in the restaurant business but in a new city. 

After joining the Pig & Khao team as Sous Chef, Ben found himself filling an ever-increasing number of roles, eventually becoming Operations Manager. In his current position, Ben oversees every aspect of Pig & Khao and Piggyback by Pig & Khao’s day-to-day business activity and operation. And the integral role as husband and partner to Leah and father to their boys, Carter Graham and Baker Scott.