Filipino Chef Tara Monsod Is a Leader in the Kitchen and Community

When Tara Monsod steps into the opulent, theatrical dining room of the Asian-American-inspired Wagyu steakhouse Animae, she’s often greeted with a cacophony of cheers. “It’s very, very weird,” she says. The recently appointed executive chef of the San Diego restaurant admits that if she’s not in the kitchen, she’d rather be hanging with her wife and their pets (a dachshund named Mya and a pot-bellied pig named Biggie Smalls)...