21-Year-Old Chef RJ Smith Runs Ocho Supper Club at Rittenhouse

Chef RJ Smith is 21 years old, runs a kitchen at the Rittenhouse Hotel every other Sunday, and still has homework due Monday morning.

Smith’s Ocho Supper Club landed a limited residency at one of Philadelphia’s most storied addresses, running every other Sunday through July 26. The eight-course tasting menu draws on Afro-Caribbean flavors Smith first explored on a family trip to Jamaica, and it has pulled write-ups from the Inquirer and 6ABC before the kid even graduates from Drexel University.

The whole thing started in a dorm room. Before the hotel, before the buzz, Smith saved money for eight months and spent it on secondhand plates, glassware, and a dining table he found on Facebook Marketplace for $150. Add $25 for the U-Haul. “The food was the most expensive part,” he told Billy Penn. “It was like, ‘What can I do to these basic or more accessible ingredients in a way that’s super, breathtaking.’” That first dinner leaned on rice-based dishes. He made a jerk potato pavé.

The name Ocho is Spanish for eight, matching the course count.

Smith grew up in Oakland, California. At 16, he decided cold emails to chefs weren’t cutting it, so he walked up to the chef de cuisine at Californios, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant, at San Francisco’s Ferry Building Farmers Market and introduced himself in person. “When you as a chef going on your computer and seeing a resume of a 16 year old, obviously you might keep moving,” he said. “So, I tried to put myself right in their path.” The gamble worked.

From there, he logged hours at Royal Izakaya, Provenance, Jean-Georges Philadelphia, and Emmett. Those are not beginner kitchens. By the time he enrolled at Drexel’s culinary program, Smith had already worked alongside Michelin-level talent and built a palate that most culinary students don’t develop until years after graduation.

On the Sundays he runs service at the Rittenhouse, Smith can spend up to 22 hours in the kitchen. His peers are on the quad. He’s breaking down proteins and plating courses for a dining room that seats discerning guests in one of the city’s most expensive zip codes.

When he talks about his drive, he doesn’t reach for the usual hustle-culture language. “It takes a level of dedication that separates you from a lot of people,” he said. “Having the ability to narrow down my focus onto something that is so particular.” And then, on what actually keeps him going: “What keeps me so excited every day is the understanding that I don’t have it figured out and that I never will. And the continuing striving for perfection, which is something so unattainable, something that I think will continue to push me in the direction that I need to go.”

For Philadelphians who haven’t caught an Ocho dinner yet, the residency runs through July 26. Reservations for a supper club at this level, in this hotel, at this price point, tend not to sit open long. Smith’s trajectory, from a Facebook Marketplace table in a Drexel dorm to the Rittenhouse Hotel dining room, suggests that catching him at this stage of his career carries its own particular value for anyone paying attention to where Philadelphia’s food scene is headed.