Life Is What You Make It
Written by: Elle Asiedu
Angela Lawrence, Chief Culture Officer at Gusto 54 Restaurant Group, on building joyful work and showing up as a Black woman in hospitality.
Angela Lawrence never set out to become a restaurateur. “My path into food service was completely serendipitous,” she says. “It felt like I’d been preparing for it all along, even if I didn’t realize it at the time.” Food had always been central to her life. She describes herself as a foodie before the term was trendy, discovering restaurants with her close friend—and future business partner—Janet Zuccarini. “We used to travel, eat, and try new places. One day she came across this restaurant in New York called Miss Lily’s. She said, ‘You have to see this—it’s a Jamaican spot, but full-service and super cool.’ We went together, and I thought, I think we could do this. At the time, it was just a dream.”
That dream came closer to reality when Zuccarini launched Gusto 101. Lawrence stepped in temporarily. “It was only supposed to be a couple of weeks, answering phones because it was so busy. I wasn’t looking for a job, just helping my friend. But I saw gaps, started fixing things, putting systems in place. A few months later Janet asked me to join her leadership team.”
Lawrence wasn’t new to the world of food. Before restaurants, she was a magazine editor—at one point editing a food publication for Kraft Foods. She also co-founded Cook Like a Jamaican with her mother, a blog and YouTube channel that’s grown to nearly 200,000 subscribers. “My mom’s an amazing home cook. Originally, I just wanted to capture her recipes for my family, but it grew into something bigger.”
What I love most is the creative act of building something from nothing.
For Lawrence, the through line has always been creation. “What I love most is the creative act of building something from nothing,” she says. “As a magazine editor, every issue was a fresh start. Launching Chubby’s wasn’t just about opening a restaurant—we took an old building, gutted it, added an extension, and turned it into something new. That process lights me up.” Her current role as Chief Culture Officer at Gusto 54 taps the same energy. “I love creating the things that bring culture to life—our holiday parties, our recognition programs, our training systems. Even writing training content feels like the editorial work I used to do: shaping ideas, making them clear, and building structure for others to use.”
The work hasn’t been without challenges. “Hospitality is still very male-dominated—especially in the kitchen,” she notes. “When we had one woman head chef, it felt huge. Now we have three at once, which is amazing.” But culture can be slow to shift. “During COVID, I was accidentally included in a WhatsApp group. The way some chefs spoke—boys’-club humour, inappropriate jokes—was disappointing. It made me realize how critical management training is. Back then we didn’t have all the training systems we do now. Today, we’re much clearer on expectations around leadership, respect, and communication.”
Those systems are rooted in values. “We first wrote our company values in 2014, and we’ve recently updated them to reflect who we are now. Treating people with respect and kindness, valuing inclusion and belonging, choosing to have a positive attitude—all of that shows up in how we hire, train, evaluate and reward. It’s not just a poster on the wall. We actually measure performance against our values.”
Her leadership philosophy balances accountability with compassion. She recalls a time as a custom magazine editor when an employee booked a surprise board room meeting. “She was ready to resign. She told me I treated her differently because she didn’t have a traditional magazine background. And she was right—but I didn’t realize I was doing that. I apologized, and we talked it through. She stayed for two more years after that meeting. It was hard to hear, but it opened the door to an honest conversation and a new way of working together.” Lawrence credits much of her growth as a leader to personal development work. “I’ve done a lot of training—communication courses, leadership programs. Leadership isn’t something you’re just born with. Yes, you can have certain traits, but to lead well you need to do the work on yourself. We all have blind spots.”
Representation, she says, is about more than optics—it’s about creating spaces where people can see themselves reflected and feel they belong. “It means a lot for people to see someone who looks like them in leadership. I’ve had team members tell me directly: ‘It feels good to see you here.’ That matters.” She remembers an earlier chapter in her career, when her photograph appeared on the editor’s page of a magazine for the Home Depot—she was the editor for Canada and the U.S. “I had Black women from the States send me letters saying, ‘It’s so amazing to see you as a Black woman in this role.’ That meant something. It showed me how powerful representation is, even when you don’t realize people are watching.”
Currently Lawrence is involved in a project—IDEA Hospitality, short for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Anti-Racism—that is designed to create accountability in hiring, promotion, and management practices across the hospitality industry. “The idea is to offer both leadership training and a certification system so restaurants and hotels can’t just talk about inclusion, they have to live it.” For Lawrence, creating workplaces where people feel they belong is non-negotiable. “We’re not a monolith. People have individual perspectives to contribute and unique needs to support. I always ask: What do you need to love your job? Let’s see how we can make that possible.”
As human beings, we all create stories about what happens to us. I choose to make them empowering.
As a Black woman, Lawrence is clear-eyed about bias—but she chooses not to let others define her. “As human beings, we all create stories about what happens to us. I choose to make mine empowering. That doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist—it does. I’ve experienced microaggressions and more, but unless I have a gut feeling something is off, I don’t start there.It keeps my power in my hands.” That perspective, she says, comes partly from her upbringing. “My parents always told me I could do anything. They showed up for everything—parent-teacher nights, band concerts, all of it. That gave me a strong foundation of confidence. Not everyone has that, which is why it’s so important to build circles of support. I have a group of female friends, and we are each other’s biggest cheerleaders. That makes a difference.”
Her advice to women, especially Black women, is both practical and spiritual. “So many of us live from fear—fear of leaving a job, fear of failure. But fear only creates more of what we don’t want. Life is meant to be joyful. You have to ask yourself: what life do you actually want, and how can you build work that supports it?” She points to her own path. After being laid off from a corporate job she disliked, she made a list of the life she wanted: time to exercise in the morning, freedom to work from home, flexibility in her hours. “That’s basically my life now. I designed it. And that’s advice I give anyone: design the life you want, then figure out how to earn a living to sustain it.”
For Angela, optimism is non-negotiable. “I really do believe energy matters. Gratitude, optimism and faith raise your vibration. What’s meant for you will never pass you by.” Lawrence is still dreaming up what comes next—whether that’s mentoring, launching IDEA Hospitality, or building new creative projects—but she keeps her compass steady. “If you go to my Instagram bio, it says: Life is what you make it. And I really believe that.”
3 Pieces of Advice:
- Design the life you want.
Don’t bend your life around a job—choose or shape your work to support the life you want. Make a list of what brings you balance and joy and build from there.
- Write your own story.
When challenges arise, resist the urge to let fear or the bias of others define your experience. Reframe it in a way that keeps your power.
- Recognize the importance of representation.
Visibility matters—for yourself and for those around you.
