Chef Mona Leena Michael joins us from Oakland.She’s a Palestinian-American chef who has worked for over a decade at some of the best restaurants in San Francisco. She brings those skills to the kitchen & creates a modern twist when it comes to Palestinian cuisine.- At the start of 2020 Chef Mona was working at Dyafa.- Due to COVID the restaurant closed.- Chef Mona took action by starting https://themanaeeshlady.com/- Despite battling the health department about her pop-up she continues to move forward, determined to make the best of 2020.- We discuss:- The Bay Area’s latest lockdown & restrictions.- What’s currently happening in Bay Area’s food scene- As an industry do we need to reform pop-ups on some level in order to make them easier & accessible for everyone to make a livable wage?- It’s not just Southern California, some Bay Area restaurants are already defying the ban…- Undocumented chefs are struggling on a whole other level during COVID