Chef Loi Benitez

Originally from Santiago in Chile, Chef Loi Benitez grew up on his grandmother Ester’s cooking. To this day, he can still remember coming home from school and smelling her food from around the corner, specifically his favorite of her dishes — fish, lamb or veal stew over rice, with greens tossed in fresh lemon. 

Chef Loi moved to New York in 1998 and was reunited for the first time in years with his father, who owned — and to this day still runs — Freddie and Pepper’s restaurant on the Upper West Side. Loi grew up in the restaurant, spending all his free time there outside of school, and by the age of 16 had honed his knife skills, and learnt to bake bread, and make fresh pasta and pizza. He still cites working for his father as one of the greatest experiences of his culinary career. 

At 19, Loi took over an Irish pub in Astoria called Broadway Station, venturing into his first role as a culinary leader. From there, he focused his interest on French cuisine, working at many of the city’s iconic French restaurants, including Jubilee, Bistro Vendome and Opia, as well as OTG at LaGuardia Airport. Chef Loi’s passion for high-quality food products, and natural flair for managing people, saw him rise quickly through the ranks in the kitchen, and brought him to the Chef Driven family in 2019. 

Now, Chef Loi is one of the youngests Executive Chefs within the group, leading the kitchen at one of the oldest and most established restaurants on the Upper West Side.