Small Town Foundations

I grew up in the best small town ever Smithers, British Columbia, and like many people who eventually find themselves in hospitality, I never truly thrived in competition. Yes, there were competitions along the way, but if I am being truthful, I have spent far more time competing with myself than with anyone else. That can become the most exhausting competition of all because you rarely allow yourself a true sense of arrival.

Where I have experienced the greatest growth, both personally and professionally, has always been through collaboration.

Long before symposiums, events and professional kitchens, I gravitated toward spaces that brought people together. I joined yearbook committees, grad committees and eventually became vice president of student council. Looking back, those experiences taught me one of the earliest and most important lessons of my life: collaboration creates community.

Those early experiences became the foundation for how I would later move through hospitality.

Mentorship Can Arrive Early

Mentors can arrive from the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected times in your life.

My first OG mentor came into my life when I was in Grade 6. A true story.

Even at that age, I had already developed a very strong personal code of ethics. I cared deeply about fairness, loyalty, community and how people treated one another. Looking back now, I realize that mentor saw those qualities in me long before I understood their value myself.

To this day, that person remains one of my most trusted mentors, still lives in the best small town ever.

That experience shaped how I view mentorship within hospitality. Mentors are not always formal. They are not always executives, celebrity chefs or industry leaders. Sometimes they are teachers, volunteers, colleagues, or people quietly observing your growth from the sidelines. Sometimes they simply recognize a spark in you and help protect it long enough for it to grow.

The Power of Volunteering

I have been a lifelong volunteer. It is not something I do simply to add to a resume or professional profile. It is part of who I am.

Volunteering introduced me to some of the most influential people, opportunities, and lessons in my life. More importantly, it taught me early on that hospitality extends far beyond the walls of a restaurant or kitchen. It lives within community. Within generosity. Within showing up for people without immediately asking what you receive in return.

Some of the strongest relationships I have built throughout my career began through volunteering, committees, associations, and collaborative events. Those spaces create opportunities for mentorship, conversation and connection in a way traditional workplaces sometimes cannot.

I often encourage younger people entering hospitality to volunteer whenever possible and to join industry associations. Not because it looks good professionally, but because it expands your world. It introduces you to different perspectives, different leadership styles, and diverse ways of thinking creatively.

More than anything, it reminds you that none of us truly build a career alone.

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A Different Kind of Leadership

I have never guarded a recipe. I have never believed leadership needed to come with a raised voice. More of a shared voice, that shared voice led to conversation of welcomed changes.

Like many women in hospitality, I have experienced my share of deeply masculine and toxic environments, enough to fill several best sellers. Yet I have never been interested in giving those experiences more power than they deserve.

What interests me far more is the alternative.

I am interested in the chefs, restaurateurs and hospitality leaders who are building collaborative cultures instead of hierarchical ones. Kitchens where knowledge is shared rather than protected. Spaces where mentorship replaces fear and where creativity is strengthened through collective contribution rather than individual ego.

For many years, hospitality often celebrated intensity more than anything else. The toughest chef. The loudest kitchen. The idea that success had to be earned through isolation and endurance.

Fortunately, I believe the industry is evolving.

The Future of Hospitality

Younger generations entering hospitality are searching for something deeper than hierarchy. They are looking for mentorship, community, creative exchange, and healthier leadership models. They want to feel connected to the work they are doing and to the people they are doing it beside.

I see this shift constantly through collaborative dinners and symposiums like Terroir Symposium, through volunteer initiatives like the Cookie Exchange benefiting The Magic of Christmas, which will be entering its ninth year this December, and the Seniors Charity Luncheon, now entering its sixth year. I see it through hospitality experiences like NEXT Food Expo on September 13-14, 2026, where chefs, producers, students and industry leaders gather together with a shared purpose. Some of the most meaningful hospitality experiences emerge when people from different backgrounds, generations and disciplines come together not simply to showcase talent, but to build community.

That is the version of hospitality I believe in. That shared collective.

Not hospitality driven solely by performance or prestige, but hospitality rooted in generosity, creativity and human connection.

Because in the end, people rarely remember only what was placed in front of them on a plate. They remember how a space made them feel. They remember warmth. They remember generosity. They remember being welcomed into something larger than themselves.

Perhaps the future of hospitality is not about standing apart at all.

Perhaps it is about learning how to pull more chairs up to the table.

And perhaps, after all these years, the greatest lesson hospitality continues to teach us is that most of us are simply getting by with a little help from our friends.

Liana Robberecht

@ChefLiana

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