Camilla Marcus

Camilla Marcus is a chef, entrepreneur, activist, and mom of four — the ultimate generalist, with a JD/MBA from Wharton and NYU and culinary training from the International Culinary Center, trailblazing what it means to be a steward for our planet and future through the lens of food. A native Angeleno, Camilla’s pioneering hospitality business, west~bourne, was inspired by her California upbringing and launched as New York City’s first restaurant to receive TRUE Zero Waste certification. Following its time in SoHo, west~bourne evolved into a collection of regenerative, plant-based, zero-waste provisions for the home, carrying its mission — eat well, do better — far beyond restaurant walls.

Her early career took shape inside some of New York’s most respected kitchens and hospitality groups: project management for Tom Colicchio, operations and business development at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, and a member of the opening team at dell’anima. She’s a rare generalist in a world that rewards and pushes specialization, a Renaissance woman pioneering a more thoughtful analogue way of life amidst the explosion of technology.  Together, the throughline of everything she’s built since.

Camilla has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, an Inc. Female Founder 500 honoree, and a member of Fast Company’s Impact Council and the invitation-only Google Food Lab think tank. Her work and philosophy have been featured across the New York Times, Forbes, Vogue, CNN, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, WWD, Marie Claire, and Eater, among others, coverage that has followed her from west~bourne’s earliest days (Vogue called it “giving back through food” when it opened in 2018) through her current work translating regenerative agriculture into home-kitchen practice. She is a co-founder of ROAR and a founding member of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, and pioneered an employee childcare partnership during west~bourne’s restaurant years, a distinct stand for working parents in an industry that rarely takes one. west~bourne itself became the first restaurant in New York City to earn TRUE Zero Waste certification, diverting 91 percent of its waste from landfills and incinerators.

In 2024, Camilla released her debut cookbook, My Regenerative Kitchen, with a foreword by Alice Waters, who called regenerative farming “a reservoir of hope… a beacon of resilience illuminating the path toward a thriving planet.” The book alongside Camilla’s collaborations with brands from goop and Vogue to Nike and Audemars Piguet has established her as a leading voice translating climate science into something each of us can actually put on a plate and do something about.