Karen Leibowitz is a restaurateur who believes restaurants can and should be restorative. She is the co-founder of The Perennial, an environmentally sustainable restaurant in San Francisco, CA, where she is also head baker. Leibowitz is Executive Director of the restaurant's sister non-profit, The Perennial Farming Initiative, which supports regenerative agriculture. She got started in the food world in 2008 as co-founder of a pop-up called Mission Street Food, which turned into Mission Chinese Food (now in SF and NYC), and of Commonwealth restaurant. 

Leibowitz is also a writer, co-writing the cookbook, Atelier Crenn: The Metamorphosis of Taste, with Chef Dominique Crenn. She and her husband, Anthony Mint, also penned Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant. Her writing has been published by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, The New York Times and other publications.