Daniel Soskolne and Loren Abramovich came up through restaurant kitchens and food cultures that demanded endurance as much as creativity. Both grew up around cooking as a daily practice, shaped by family, place, and travel, and spent years moving between cities and countries, learning how food reflects identity, care, and values. Over time, cooking became more deliberate for both of them, less about performance and more about attention, presence, and the human exchange that happens around a shared meal.

LEV, a cooking practice that takes shape through intimate dinners in temporary or borrowed spaces, grew out of that shared understanding, not as a business plan but as a response to how they wanted to live and work. Their approach is collaborative and fluid, guided by feeling rather than concept, and grounded in a belief that care, when applied well in one place, can extend outward. They resist hierarchy, favor trust, and see hospitality as a personal responsibility. In conversation, they speak the way they cook, openly and without pretense, returning again and again to the importance of process, patience, and integrity. JACQUES: At JACQUES, we talk a lot about connections of the mind, body, and spirit Food feeds and nourishes the body in very obvious ways, but do you sense a wider connection forming at your tables?

Daniel: I think a lot of it is just that people are together. When people come, they are not usually on their phones, they are not distracted, and they are more in the moment. That already changes something. It creates a space where people are present with each other. There is more conversation and more awareness of what is happening around you.

Loren: For us, it’s not something we design from the outside. There is not really a method where we decide, this is the concept and this is how people should feel. We don’t have a written method, or even a very clear method in our minds about what a dinner should be. We start from how we like to feel ourselves when we host. What feels good to us. What feels warm and honest. And then we try to pass that forward, both to the guests and to the people who work with us. That part is difficult, because people don’t live in our minds. They have to learn us, and we have to learn them. It’s a long process. But when it works, it works. There is no guiding concept in a strict sense. The food stays very simple and very genuine. For us, the food itself already holds enough content. At the same time, we are in the service business. People pay to be there, and we have to move between those two things all the time.

Daniel: Hospitality is a big part of it. I think it elevates the food, because it becomes more personal and more emotional. We come to food from a place of caring, and we try to host from that same place. In New York, that kind of hospitality can feel rare. Often it feels transactional. Here, we really want people to feel taken care of in a real way, not because someone wants something back from them, but because it matters to us. JACQUES: You both have lived and worked in many different places around the world. How has moving between cultures shaped the way you see and move through the world?

Daniel: For me, it was a personal journey to understand people. Human behavior. Food was a big part of that. My first real experience abroad was Italy, and that was very strong for me. Food there is deeply connected to identity. It’s about who you are, where you come from, and how you see life. Good ingredients, simply cooked, but with a lot of intention and care. That way of thinking doesn’t stop at food. It extends into everything. Moving between cultures also helps you understand yourself better. Not in a fixed way, because that always evolves, but you start to recognize what you are drawn to and what feels true to you.

Loren: I feel very lucky that I had the chance to move around like that. It affected who I am, what I cook, and how I see things. I miss it. I want to do more of that again.

JACQUES: LEV isn’t a restaurant so much as a practice. Was that intentional from the beginning, or did it evolve out of how you wanted to live and work?

Daniel: That was intentional. We didn’t want to open a restaurant. We wanted a different lifestyle. More freedom. A way of working that felt more aligned with how we want to live.

Loren: We both did restaurants before. We know that life very well. It’s extremely intense. It’s stressful. And it’s not really the lifestyle we want now, especially with families. With LEV, there is still stress, but we can navigate it differently. The way it grows is intentional, but it’s also not planned very far ahead. It’s flexible. It’s open. The doors are open, so a lot of things come in, good things and difficult things. I like that risk. It keeps you awake. It keeps you alert. It keeps you alive. JACQUES: You both grew up around food cultures where cooking was woven into daily life. When did food become something more conscious, even philosophical, for you?

Daniel: For me, it became more conscious when I worked in Italy. That’s when I understood that food had more meaning than something I just intuitively wanted to do. I didn’t really know why before. I just went with it.

Loren: Food was always there for me. Family, neighbors, craft, land, animals. Everyone cooked. It was very organic. I never really get tired of it. Cooking feels like therapy to me. It’s something I’m always happy to do. I heard something a long time ago that stayed with me. Someone said that if you know how to do one thing well, you can do everything well. I really believe that. Not that you have to be perfect at everything, but if you know how to do one thing properly, you can translate that attention to other things. If you know how to roast a pumpkin properly, you know how to fold a carpet properly. It’s the same intention. The same care. That’s also what we try to do here. We try to give every detail the attention it needs, whether it’s the food, the space, or the way people are treated. We are not there yet. It takes time and training, and people. But slowly, it gets better. 

JACQUES: The word LEV means heart. What does that word hold now, after years of cooking together?

Daniel: It’s where we cook from. It’s emotional. It’s personal.

Loren: For me, it’s also a reminder. To come back to the heart when making decisions. Sometimes you get hurt. Sometimes things don’t work. But in the bigger picture, if you act from the heart, you usually feel right about it.

Daniel: Even if you lose something, it’s a good loss. At least you feel good about what you did.

JACQUES: LEV often exists temporarily, in gardens, studios, and borrowed spaces. How does the impermanence shape the way you cook and host?

Loren: Impermanence is inspiring. A space tells you immediately what you can and cannot do. That already gives you the menu. You don’t have to force it. There is also a freshness to it. When something is made for the first time, there is an energy to it. It doesn’t get boring. It stays alive. Of course there is a price. Less comfort. Less facility. More travel. But impermanence creates a vibration, both for us and for the guests.

JACQUES: In a culture that prizes speed and scale, what does it mean to just slow something down and do it well?

Daniel: That’s just how we work. The thinking, the prep, the building of the event, all of that takes time. Then the event comes and everything becomes fast. There is the rush of service. You get both. But the mentality is slower. And I think people feel that.

JACQUES: Cooking is often discussed as creative work, but it’s also intensely physical. Where does the art end and the labor begin for you, or are they inseparable?

Loren: You can’t separate it. Exhaustion is part of it.

Daniel: People see the beauty of food now, especially online, but they don’t always understand the labor. The long days. How physical it is. How tired you get. You do get drained. But there is also something meaningful about being fully inside something. Physical, mental, emotional. It’s all together.

Loren: It’s unpredictable. You can plan something and it doesn’t work. Your energy is off. Your mind is elsewhere. That happens. We are human. But people give us their time and their money. We take that very seriously. The guest matters. The room matters. Who is there matters. Respect matters.

JACQUES: Are there rituals, habits, or practices outside the kitchen that help you stay connected to your bodies?

Daniel: We both swim. I stretch. I try to meditate as much as I can. And we dance a lot. At home, with my kids, with my wife. We put music on and we dance together. 

Loren: Family is a big part of it. With young kids, that was the biggest challenge for many years, but also the biggest teacher. Now there is more room for self-care.

Music helps. I recently built a sound system with vinyl. It made me realize how important your physical environment is for well-being. I learned that later in life. The space you live in really shapes how you feel.