About Chef Jacob

Jacob Totah was born in Dallas, Texas, into an American-Middle Eastern family. While his love of food started at an early age, it was his mother, Alice, who inspired him to start cooking when he was 14. Food quickly turned from a hobby into a passion as he began experimenting in the kitchen and cooking for his family, often preparing meals for his parents almost every day. He and his father, Jack, took several trips from Dallas to Austin throughout the years specifically to chase the best food possible in the barbecue capital of the world. At 16, Jacob got his first smoker and began staying up through the night to cook briskets for 14 hours. His love of barbecue stayed with him through college, and when he returned to Dallas, he joined the team at Terry Black's Barbecue, where he worked as a pitmaster for nearly three years.

During his last two years at Terry Black's, Jacob also joined the team at 55 Seventy, a private wine club that introduced him to the world of fine dining. While balancing two jobs and working long days, he developed a new appreciation for the precision and creativity of fine dining and began shifting his focus toward learning everything he could. He bought cookbooks, cooked increasingly elaborate meals for friends and family, and most importantly, spent countless hours trying new recipes to impress his soon-to-be wife, Monica.

Jacob and Monica were married at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, in 2025, returning to the place where they first met. They soon moved to New Orleans for Monica to begin her residency in Internal Medicine, settling into a home just a short walk from River Road. What started simply as the street they came home to each day became the inspiration for the name of their supper club. While Monica began her residency, Jacob joined the kitchen at Restaurant August as a line cook, where he continues to learn from the talented chefs around him and develop techniques and knowledge that he brings to his own cooking. That cooking is now River Road Supper Club, which he and Monica opened in the fall of 2026, and the dishes and tasting menus he once made for friends and family go out each week to their neighbors.

When he isn't spending time with his wife, Jacob can usually be found at the farmers market or in the kitchen, always trying to become a better, faster, and more talented chef. His goal is simple: to share his experience and love of food with as many people as possible, providing families with a freshly made, high-quality alternative to cooking dinner themselves — taking something off your plate by putting something delicious on it.