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Our Team

Our Board of Directors

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Lena Goldberg, CMP

Founder, Board President & Exec Director
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Violette Lewis

Board Member & Secretary
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Sarah Colton

Board Member & Acting Treasurer
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Jos Egleton

Board Member

Our Staff

Part of our growth mission is to hire a full-time administrative team to support our volunteers. Contact us for information regarding how you can support these goals.

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Kevin Johnson

Chef Angels Ambassador
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Staff Member

Chef

Our Featured Chef Angels

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Christina Ng

Chef and Programs Lead, Berry Good Food Foundation
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Jennifer Felmley

Personal Chef and Culinary Content Creator, Chef Jenn Cooks
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Scott Ingenito

Executive Chef & Owner, Sweet Devil Culinary
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Our Nonprofit Collaborators

VARSITY TEAM, INC.

Join the Team

Chef Angels is on a mission to ensure every youth in San Diego has access to food, education and community. We can’t do this by ourselves. Join us in our mission to bring good to our city and get involved with our team.

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Lena Goldberg, CMP

Founder, Board President & Executive Director

Lena’s talents lie in the culinary profession, where she works as a private chef in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. Prior to that, she had many years of experience in the hospitality industry, receiving hospitality degrees from both Hotel Institute Montreux, Switzerland, and Southern New Hampshire University, then working her way up in hotel Food & Beverage management positions before moving to catering and sales as a convention and events manager. Lena earned her designation as a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) by the Events Industry Council in 2003. 


 With over 20 years of volunteer experience in San Diego’s foster youth services, Lena became well-connected with the leaders of these organizations. When she was given the opportunity to provide hands-on cooking classes to teenage girls living in a trauma recovery home for trafficking survivors, she recognized that this was what she needed to be doing. This couldn’t have come at a better time for her. As the pandemic was entering its second year, the restaurant workforce was dangerously low and needed staffing. Able to merge her passions into one organization, Goldberg founded the Chef Angels Culinary Program. From an idea to a successful and influential nonprofit, natural collaborator, and networker, Chef Lena built an organization made to give back to the San Diego community and provide opportunities to underserved youth.

Violette Lewis

Board Member & Secretary

From an early age, Violette exhibited a passion for cooking. She would spend time in the kitchen with her Mother and Great-Grandmother, learning family recipes and experimenting with new ones from cookbooks. In 2003, she won the San Diego Art Institute’s Best Teen Chef in America Scholarship competition. She then earned an Associate of Science in Culinary Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Culinary Management. While attending school, she worked at Island Prime, C-Level Lounge, Soleil K in the San Diego Marriott, Hospitality Inc (one of San Diego’s largest catering companies), and Woolfies Bakery in Cape Cod, Mass. 

Upon completing school, she became a sous chef at Hospitality Inc. From there, she went to work for Compass Group, overseeing corporate catering and restaurant operations for 11 years in companies like LG Electronics, Teradata, and Qualcomm. She was the Executive Chef at the Wild Thyme Company, where she oversaw large-scale events, weddings, private dinners, and restaurant operations. In 2020, she co-founded The Handmade Chef Inc. with her wife. Their private chef company offers luxury dining experiences for small corporate events, micro weddings, and intimate gatherings. They recently opened a brick-and-mortar meal prep shop that focuses on customizable, clean meals for those who are too busy to cook for themselves. As a San Diego native, Violette has a passion for quality farm-to-table ingredients and uses classic techniques to bring her dishes to life.


Sarah Colton

Board Member & Acting Treasurer

As a former foster youth herself, Sarah has the unique lived experience that allows her to relate deeply to many of the youth she works with.

Sarah graduated from CSUSM with a B.S. in Business Management and Entrepreneurship. Her goal was to start her own business, and with a passion for cooking, she decided to pursue more education. Later, she graduated from Grossmont Community College Culinary Program with an emphasis on baking and pastry. With over 20 years of culinary and hospitality, Sarah shifted her sights to nonprofits. She found her calling in serving youth in a similar position to where she once was. 

Jos Egleton

Board Member

Jos Egleton is the owner and head chef of Mortar and Pestle 619, a private chef and catering company. She entered the culinary world when she was young, working at various Italian restaurants with the growing hope that one day she could be the head chef at her own restaurant. After receiving a B.A. in Journalism from HBCU and serving in the military, Jos fulfilled her dream. She has since been featured on The Food Network’s Supermarket Stakeout and currently has a 10-episode series running on Fox, Fox Soul, BET, and Peacock, called Chefs Of Color. She spends most of her free time volunteering with various charities and organizations including Chef Angels.

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Peach pie!

Christina Ng

Chef and Programs Lead, Berry Good Food Foundation

Q. How did you hear about us?
A. I found out about Chef Angels through my friend, Lena. Lena and I have known each other for over a decade through food of course! When she invited me to be a part of the Chef Angels program, it was an easy yes for me.

Q. Why Chef Angels?
A. I am passionate about cooking and even more passionate about educating young minds about the possibilities of food. It was a great fit for me and has given me the opportunity to work with communities in need that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to reach.

Q. Favorite class?
A. Scratch made pizza!

Q. Why pizza?
A. Pizza is such a unifying food, and class attendees at multiple Chef Angels sites had a great time making their own pies. I think the familiarity of the food as well as a resounding positive vibe surrounding its flavor profile really helped each of the kids get way into the pizza making process.

Q. Favorite ingredient?
A. I love fresh figs. Figs are a Southern California favorite and have a limited season, so when they are around, there’s even more motivation to use them and snack on them as much as possible.

Q. How do you use fresh figs?
A. I love them on salads, on pizza, and even in jam form on top of toast.

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Tomato and Peach Salad with Pickled Red Onions, Fresh Herbs, and Whipped Fennel & Lavender Goat Cheese

Jennifer Felmley

Personal Chef and Culinary Content Creator, Chef Jenn Cooks

Q. Path to chefdom?
A. My journey into the culinary world began with a deep passion for food and cooking, nurtured by my grandparents. Spending long summers in my grandmother’s kitchen, who loved to cook.

Q. First job?
A. My first official job in the culinary field was at a bakery, where I learned the fundamentals amidst long hours and the heat of the kitchen, instilling in me a strong work ethic.

Q. Next steps?
A. I pursued formal culinary education and then gained hands-on experience. It was during this time that I discovered my calling as a chef—realizing the joy and satisfaction that comes from creating dishes that bring people together and make them happy. Eventually establishing my own business as a personal chef.

Q. What now?
A. I recently began marketing my services for culinary content creation (constantly evolving as a chef). Cooking for me is not just about the food; it’s about finding joy and happiness in every meal shared with others.

Q. Advice for younger self?
A. If I were starting in the culinary industry self-employed, I’d advise my younger self to prioritize financial literacy and business acumen alongside culinary skills.

Q. Favorite ingredient?
A. Fresh herbs and edible flowers; from fresh thyme flowers and rosemary, to lemon verbena and lavender.

Q. How to use them?
A. From sauces to salads, and even in desserts. The vibrant, aromatic quality adds a fresh and invigorating flavor that can elevate any dish. They not only enhance the taste but can also bring a burst of color and freshness to my culinary creations.

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Grilled shrimp with sweet corn medley

Scott Ingenito

Executive Chef & Owner, Sweet Devil Culinary

Q. Fantasy class location? Why?
A.  Specialty Produce or a local farm for access to amazingly fresh local ingredients.  I think people get either overwhelmed with the amount of great ingredients we have here in San Diego, or they get pigeonholed into using a few of the same things they are used to using. It would be amazing to highlight some of these incredible places and products to show people how easy it can be to make fresh food with just local ingredients and a little bit of elbow grease.

Q.Path to chefdom?
A. I started over at the age of 30, after working as a federal officer for the department of homeland security and working as a musician. I took some adult education courses, being inspired by the early days of Food Network and the celebrity chefs.

Q. First job in culinary?
A.  When I moved to San Diego after taking the culinary courses, I left the government and started working at a place called Great News! Cooking School in Pacific Beach. This was an amazing experience, meeting local chefs and vendors, and getting into the local Chef scene in a very fancy way. 

Q. What came next?
A.  From there, I worked in a lot of restaurants, launched food trucks, launched restaurants with the biggest food and restaurant groups here in San Diego.  Worked for some of the biggest catering companies as well, after gaining all that knowledge and experience I launched my own company in 2018.

Q. Top life lesson?
A. The one valuable thing I will tell people is always work for amazing people, and learn and take those skills with you.  Be a sponge. I still work closely with a lot of those companies to help them out when needed.

Q. Advice for your younger self?
A.  If I was starting at a young age like I did with music, I would tell people to forgo culinary school, and try to travel and learn from some of the best chefs in the country or the world. If you can’t put money together, at least learn from some of the best chefs in your city.

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