Star Chef Aitor Zabala, Rick Caruso Among Lineup at TEDxBeverly Grove

On Oct. 13, 2021, ChefAitor Zabalastood at a breaking point. His acclaimed restaurant Somni had closed during the pandemic. The new space he planned to reopen in had fallen through. His sous chef had quit. After four years cooking alone in a test kitchen with no guests, the white jacket felt heavier than it ever had. Quitting seemed not just possible, but rational.

Instead, Zabala made himself a smaller promise: He would wait one more day.

That decision, repeated when confidence had disappeared, quietly set the stage for one of the most striking comebacks in modern fine dining. When Zabala reopenedSomniin West Hollywood in November 2024, expectations were cautious. Seven months later, the Michelin Guide awarded the restaurant three stars, a distinction that often takes years, sometimes decades, to achieve.

As Zabala told The Hollywood Reporter shortly after receiving the honor, “It takes years and years of hard work and passion and doing better every single day to receive such an achievement.

Now Zabala is taking that hard-earned lesson beyond the kitchen. He has been confirmed as a featured speaker atTEDxBeverlyGrove2026, where he will present what he calls the “One More Day Principle.” The event takes place March 14, 2026, under the theme “Reimagining the Possible.”

Rather than leaning on the familiar language of inspiration, Zabala’s talk focuses on endurance. He argues that motivation is unreliable in moments of collapse, while persistence is a discipline that can be practiced even when belief is gone. For Zabala, the message is blunt and unglamorous. Reimagining the possible does not begin with belief. It begins with the decision to show up again tomorrow.

The Barcelona-born Zabala appears alongside a deliberately cross-disciplinary lineup. Real estate developer and civic figure, currently mulling a second Los Angeles mayoral run,Rick J. Caruso will argue that homelessness, affordability, and urban decline are failures of ownership and accountability.

Entrepreneur and investorAaron Michael Krinskyexamines how complexity inside well-meaning systems erodes care. Transformational coachEron Zehavifocuses on how interpretation shapes paralysis and movement.

Paralympic medalistIsaac Jean-Paulreframes disability as an environmental design problem, while systems architectKen Cardwellwarns of the risks of delegating identity to artificial intelligence. Creative operations leaderRyan Garneyrounds out the program with lessons on crisis containment drawn from disaster history.