Soup’s on: Why a Sedona restaurateur is giving back 

Chef Lisa Dahl has shaped how people eat in Sedona for 30 years. She has six restaurants and two cookbooks under her belt. Now, the restaurateur has launched the Lisa Dahl Foundation to address hunger in Native American communities in Arizona. Her foundation will do that through Soup Hope, a program that will share Dahl’s plant-based minestra soup with these communities. Dahl’s nonprofit will also feature a garden and kitchen named in honor of her son Justin, who was killed in 1994.  

“Our favorite times were cooking around our stove after school,” Dahl says. “Soups were among our favorite things to create together.”  

Dahl shared more about her foundation, how it will help combat food insecurity and her bigger philanthropic aspirations. 

You’ve run successful restaurants in Sedona since 1995. Why did you want to launch a nonprofit organization? 

Early in my career as a restaurateur, I asked my financial director, “Are restaurants not really nonprofits themselves?” We found ourselves giving donations almost from the very beginning, and that immediately made me feel that I had found my calling. Giving, in all forms, whether food donations, gift cards or other methods of charitable support, was simply part and parcel of being a restaurant owner in those early days, when we very much wanted to build strong relationships within the community.   

 Tell us about the Lisa Dahl Foundation’s work and who it will serve. 

The Lisa Dahl Foundation found its beating heart in the desire to serve poverty within Native American and Indigenous communities, beginning in Arizona, where I became far more aware of the depth of desperation surrounding resources we often take for granted, such as food, water and electricity.   

 Soup Hope is at the cornerstone of this work. Tell us about it. 

Soup Hope is a recipe I began developing about five years ago, when I fell in love with heirloom beans that contain complete amino acids. I combined them with quinoa and many savory flavors, along with Arizona-grown organic vegetables. 

 Though it appears to be a simple soup, it is quite the opposite. The slow cooking process is essential, with the beans simmered gently for hours. As the lentils and variety of legumes cook down, they naturally break apart into a rich, creamy consistency. Each stage requires time so that the flavors can fully develop, creating a deeply savory, almost meat-like flavor profile and a hearty, stew-like appearance, despite being completely plant-based and gluten free. 

 Another element of the foundation’s work is Justin’s Garden and Kitchen, named for your son. Tell us about him and this culinary program. 

Justin and I loved to cook together more than anything. Our favorite times were cooking around our stove after school when we lived in the Bay Area. Soups were among our favorite things to create together. His friends always dropped by, playing music and making yummy food, long before it was trendy. 

 Those happy times are what I seek to recreate through helping young people, and people of any age really, discover the joy of gardening and creating food that comes straight out of the earth. My hope is to cultivate young chefs along the way. 

 My fear for the future is restaurant automation, and I do not align with food that is not made in the mantra I adopted years ago: “When you cook with love, you feed the soul.” 

 How can people support or get involved with the foundation? 

We are looking to grow our foundation much like a tree with many branches that can reach out to board members, donors, volunteers and partners. Our goal is to access the resources needed to co-pack our soup for both retail and food service, increasing public awareness through specialty grocers, natural food stores, online sales and eventually addressing larger needs within school systems and crisis intervention programs, where the need grows more dire every day. 

 We want to expand our vision to help make homelessness a thing of the past by restoring dignity to those who have lost their way in life but may find it again through involvement in these endeavors. We are a grassroots, young foundation, but our roots are strong. With the support we are receiving locally and nationally, our branches will continue to spread. 

 Please be sure to visit lisadahlfoundation.org to learn more. 

 Will Phoenicians see you at Devour in 2026? Tell us what you’ll be making and if you’ll share anything about the foundation during the event. 

I am strongly considering returning once again to Devour. We are in conversations now, and we will know for sure very shortly. But if we do, you can be assured that we will be sampling Soup Hope, though we would like to keep a few secrets tucked away. If this year becomes a return visit with our incredible supporters who come to our booth year after year, I will not let them down. 

 Anything else you’d like to share? 

I am extremely proud to be a 30-year veteran in the culinary and hospitality industry here in Arizona. With every event we do, my heart opens more and more, and I feel that Justin becomes an even stronger guiding light, because he has touched countless hearts throughout the years I have been able to serve in the hospitality industry.