The Chef

Dorian Southall

Chef Dorian Southall's cooking is rooted in memory, reinvention, and the belief that food has the power to bring people back to one another.

Before becoming a chef, Dorian served in the United States Marine Corps, an experience that shaped the discipline, resilience, and attention to detail he carries into the kitchen today. But his culinary education happened somewhere more personal: around family tables, through the food and traditions he grew up with, and through years of teaching himself how to translate those memories into something entirely his own.

His cooking begins in the South, with the flavors, generosity, and hospitality that shaped him, then moves through Southern California, where seasonality and exceptional produce have become part of his language. Japanese, Korean, Italian, and French techniques often find their way onto the plate — not as fusion for the sake of novelty, but as tools for telling a more complete story.

Much of Dorian's work is also inspired by his mother, Sandra, and by the idea of preserving what we inherit while still allowing ourselves to evolve. That philosophy has become central to Scratch Test Kitchen and to his approach as a chef: respect the memory, question the rules, and create something that feels both familiar and completely new.

Chef Dorian has appeared on Food Network and has been featured in VoyageLA and CanvasRebel, but the work he values most happens on a much smaller scale: across the counter, around the table, and in the conversations that happen between courses.

His philosophy is simple: Sharing Connections Beyond the Plate.

The Experience

A seat at the counter. A conversation through food.

STUDIO is an intimate four-seat chef's counter in Tustin, California, created for guests who want to experience food differently.

There are no large dining rooms and no distance between the chef and the guest. You are seated just feet from where each course is prepared, finished, and plated. You see the process, hear the stories behind the dishes, ask questions, and become part of the evening rather than simply watching it happen.

The menu is driven by the season and by what Chef Dorian is inspired to cook in that moment. Southern California produce may meet Southern memory, Japanese technique, Italian simplicity, or something discovered only days before dinner. The result is food that feels thoughtful without feeling precious, ambitious without losing its soul.

Some experiences, including Last Minute Mondays, center around vegetable-forward tasting menus with optional supplemental courses. Others explore Sunday dinner, private tasting menus, special collaborations, or entirely new ideas being developed inside Scratch Test Kitchen.

Because STUDIO is also a working test kitchen, the experience is intentionally fluid. Dishes evolve. Techniques are tested. Conversations influence the evening. What appears on your plate may never exist in exactly the same form again.

This is not a traditional restaurant.

It is part chef's table, part dinner party, part creative laboratory, and above all, a place built around one idea:

The best meals do more than feed you. They connect you.