Shadyside restaurant Lilith opened in 2023, and its Puerto Rican- and Sicilian-inspired dishes have made it one of the city’s most coveted reservations.
It’s an intimate 36-seat space with emerald walls — and a name that recalls the mythological story of a reclaimed feminist icon. According to lore, Lilith was Adam’s first wife, made of the same soil as him, and when she refused to submit to him, she was banished from the Garden of Eden.
90.5 WESA’s Priyanka Tewari spoke with the two chefs at the helm of Lilith, co-owners Jamilka Borges and Dianne DeStefano, about how their friendship and cultural heritages come together on the menu.
This interview transcript has been edited for clarity.
Priyanka Tewari: [The two of you] have been collaborating with each other for more than a decade. How did you first meet?
Dianne DeStefano: In 2014, I was hired to be the pastry chef at Bar Marco [in the Strip District], by one of the owners of the restaurant. He had no real reason to hire me, other than I told him I had just gone to culinary school. So he hired me and kind of just presented me to Jamilka, and was, like, “Here’s a pastry chef for you.”
She didn’t know I was coming. It was a little bit awkward at first, but I proved myself quickly, and we solidified a really strong friendship. And we’ve been working together, on and off, ever since.
Jamilka Borges and Dianne DeStefano
Dianne DeStefano (left) and Jamilka Borges (right) have collaborated for more than a decade in restaurants, at catering jobs and now as co-owners of Shadyside’s Lilith, which opened in 2023.
Before you opened Lilith, you traveled the country doing chef events together. One time you even pulled off a dinner for 300 in a cave?
DeStefano: It was actually an old mine, but we just called it a cave because it looked like a cave and felt like a cave. It was cold and dirty. But yes, we cooked outside of the mine and served the dinner in the mine.
Borges: I feel like that’s one of the many things we’ve done. We have cooked for 400, 500 people just in different weird circumstances and locations. And the great thing about Dianne is I always know that I can count on her. All these things are thrown at us, and we just communicate. Our strengths are so different that it just works.
DeStefano: Over the years, when Jamilka would ask me to get involved on a random catering project, it would be completely insane.
A good example is when we cooked for a wedding. We were cooking out of a restaurant Downtown, and I asked her, “Am I going to have oven space to cook this bread?”
She said, “Yeah, 100 percent. I promise you’ll have oven space.”
And I ended up having to walk raw dough down the block to use an oven in another restaurant because I indeed did not have oven space.
But it works, and it’s a great story. It’s always an adventure.
The yuca pierogi at Shadyside’s Lilith is an “ode to Pittsburgh,” that nods to chef Jamilka Borges’ Puerto Rican roots with its use of yuca instead of potato filling
The food scene in Pittsburgh in recent years has really opened up to include more global and diverse influences. Dianne, you’re from Pittsburgh, your family is Sicilian. Jamilka, you grew up in Puerto Rico. The dishes that you’ve created for Lilith have strong connections to both of your cultural heritages. How do Sicilian and Puerto Rican influences come together on the menu?
DeStefano: Well, they’re both islands. And there are a lot of similarities in their cuisines. Obviously, Sicily is not in the tropics, but Sicilian food is not what most people think of when they think of Italian food. It’s a lot oily, fishy, citrusy, nutty. And there’s a lot of that in Puerto Rican cuisine.
Borges: There are similarities in terms of the freshness, the lightness. Both are very heavy on seafood, and that’s just how I have always cooked. There’s a lot of fresh pasta made in-house.
And the yuca pierogi, for example, is a little bit of an ode to Pittsburgh. It’s made with yuca instead of potato, and it comes with our romesco sauce instead of sour cream and onions.
So there’s also a little bit of playfulness in the city that we are located in, and that we love.
What about the desserts? They are almost works of art and just full of flavor.
DeStefano: My art background definitely plays a part. And I really love the visual aspect of creating a dessert plate.
Baked Alaska is one of pastry chef Dianne DeStefano’s show-stopping desserts at Lilith in Shadyside.
And I also just have such a strong passion for the science of baking. When [Jamilka and I] first met at Bar Marco, the way we became actual friends was that she wanted Puerto Rican breads on the menu and she hadn’t been able to buy them anywhere. She told me about a couple different breads — pan sobao and pan de mallorca.
I did some research, and then I started baking iterations of them. [Jamilka] would try them and kind of guide me, like, “This should be a little more cakey, a little sweeter.”
As soon as I was able to get those to where she remembered them from Puerto Rico, I remember her jumping up and down and being so happy. And that made me feel extremely validated. And then, she was, like, “Okay, we’re cool now.”
Borges: I respect you now.
DeStefano: That’s a bread that we still use today.
Borges: Every day.
Do you have a kitchen anthem?
DeStefano: Yes. It’s “Let’s Have A Kiki” by the Scissor Sisters. It’s a gay club jam, and it is fabulous.
Borges: It is the song that we closed the restaurant to for the first year. Every single night we would play the same song.
DeStefano: It is so much fun.
Borges: The whole kitchen would be washing dishes and scrubbing, dancing to the music at the same time. And then we danced to it at my wedding in Puerto Rico.
Lilith opened in 2023, in the former location of Café Zinho in Shadyside.
Dining and Cooking