Our Team
Arnon – Chef/Owner
“In cooking, as in all arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection” – Richard Olney, Simple French Food
Anaviv is led by Chef Arnon Oren, who was classically trained in France. Chef Arnon has many years of experience in San Francisco Bay Area restaurants, including the iconic Chez Panisse and Oliveto Cafe & Restaurant in Oakland.
“I was fortunate to grow up in remarkable—and simple—surroundings. In the small village where I was a boy, I was surrounded by an abundance of fruit trees, a goat for milk and cheese, honey bees, and olive trees for cured olives and olive oil. My first tastes were of pure foods and fresh flavors. My romantic side still tries to get back to those wondrous experiences with every dish I make. I was the Executive Chef at Café Cacao for Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker. I worked alongside great talent, like the many chefs at Alice Water’s Chez Panisse in Berkeley and Oliveto Café & Restaurant in Oakland. I established and sold my specialty nut business to Nuthouse! Granola Co. With each experience, I gained wisdom about cooking and the honor of bringing food to someone’s table.”
Felice Faison
Felice, our floral designer, credits her inspiration in part, to her father, who was a pioneer in the recycled and salvaged wood industry in California. “His ability to create something stunning from things that most people would throw away taught me the value of a different perspective.”
Her attraction to floral design started as a young child watching and helping her older twin sisters, both florists, take unusual and unique foliage and flowers, and create incredible designs. Felice went on to study fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and later left New York home bound for the Wild West Coast, where she now lives with Ian, her husband and their dog Linus. “I take inspiration from seasonally changing colors, textures, plant life, and foliage near my home in Marin County. I have a deep love and passion for all things wild and different, and I love to apply that in my designs.”
Ian McQueen
Ian is Anaviv’s Chef de Cuisine. He is behind developing and running our newest culinary offerings at Anaviv’s Open Market. Ian grew up in the San Francisco culinary scene and has worked his whole life in the restaurant industry. After working all positions from dishwasher to bar manager throughout the Bay Area, he began his cooking career in legendary kitchens like jardiniere and 3 Michelin stared restaurant Benu.
Tonya Brown
Tonya joins us as Anaviv’s Sales and Event Production Manager. A big believer in happily-ever-after whether it be for your big day or a very special event, Tonya takes great joy in learning peoples’ stories and seeing them through. Having been in the hospitality industry for over 20 years, she knows the importance of connecting with people and paying attention to details. Working in Orange County, Napa Valley, Sacramento, and now the Bay Area has opened her up to a plethora of experiences, and she constantly strives to top her last event. She truly loves what she does, which shows beautifully in her work, and wouldn’t change it for the world.
Sofi Hecht
Sofi works as Anaviv’s marketing manager. She has been based in the Bay Area for her whole life, minus college on the East Coast, where she studied Environmental Policy and Arabic, and a few years spent traveling, with long stints in Morocco, Italy, Israel, and Jordan. She enjoys trying new foods and creating communication through written and visual content, and is able to experience both of these daily in her role at Anaviv.
Kelli Baram – Co-founder/Director of the Plant to Plate Internship Program
Kelli’s passion for organic gardening and homestead farming is rooted in her concern for environmental justice and physical and mental wellness. She is a Master Gardener, focusing on urban farming, and has worked as a garden educator for more than 10 years. In addition to her work with Plant to Plate, she is the garden educator at Saint Mary’s College of California. She holds a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and worked in many different contexts as a mental health professional before pursuing her education and experience in growing food organically. Cultivating and tending to the earth brought Kelli’s two passions for wellness and environmental justice together. It is from this foundation that she coordinates and leads the Plant to Plate Internship Program.
Interested in joining the team?
