{"id":324972,"date":"2026-05-20T19:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/324972\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:14:11","slug":"the-next-generation-of-alta-california-has-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/324972\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Generation of Alta California Has Arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new generation of Latino chefs has emerged amid ongoing ICE raids and an increasingly hostile environment toward immigrants<\/a> in the U.S. In Los Angeles, these chefs have worked to further Alta California cuisine in the city in exciting ways that have also shown echoes around the country.<\/p>\n

The Alta California movement began to materialize in the late aughts as Mexican American chefs who cut their teeth in California cuisine restaurants began to open their own distinct dining destinations. Trailblazing restaurants such as Cacao Mexicatessen, Cook\u2019s Tortas, and Ortega 120 riffed on Mexican American restaurant standards: tacos, tortas, chilaquiles, burritos, and a diverse array of antojitos<\/a>. Employing modern techniques and local California ingredients, Alta California cuisine not only served as a catalyst for the next generation of Latino chefs, but also broadened the scope of California cooking. The old guard of Alta California includes chef Carlos Salgado, of Taco Maria fame<\/a>, who returned to the kitchen at La Sirena in July 2025, more than 2000 miles away from Southern California in Wisconsin. In Los Angeles, chef Ray Garcia opened Broken Spanish Comedor in October 2025<\/a>, and will open Broken Spanish in 2026, while chef Wes \u00c1vila has stayed the course at Ka\u2019teen<\/a>, among other projects.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-orange<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, one doesn\u2019t have to venture far to find modern Mexican American restaurants led by equally intrepid Los Angeles chefs. In response to the ongoing crisis in Los Angeles, chef Andrew Ponce added a months-long tasting menu to his popular A T\u00ed in Echo Park; in the near future, he plans to launch A T\u00ed Afuera, a grill menu for lunch that will be an ongoing collaboration with other guest chefs. Working as a sous chef at Jon and Vinny\u2019s and then Bestia, Ponce, who is Mexican American, felt the urge to cook Mexican food after a stint as opening sous chef for the short-lived Onda by chef Gabriela C\u00e1mara and Sqirl owner Jessica Koslow<\/a>. On his current menu, find homages to chef Wes \u00c1vila\u2019s sweet potato taco, as well as to chef Carlos Salgado\u2019s aguachile from Taco Mar\u00eda, the kitchen where Ponce was mentored in the ways of Alta California. \u201cI remember having that potato taco for the first time at the [Guerrilla Tacos] truck; it was life changing,\u201d says Ponce.<\/p>\n

For many in this cohort, inspiration steeps in their local communities. Like Ponce, chef Francisco Mor\u00e1n (Loreto, Mariscos Za Za Za) grew his abilities in the kitchens of the Los Angeles restaurant boom in the 2010s. Jumping on the line at young ages, some chefs did not have the luxury to travel widely across M\u00e9xico nor anywhere else in Latin America before starting to work full time. When he opened LA Cha Cha Cha <\/a>(which closed<\/a> in late 2025) in 2021 as executive chef, Mor\u00e1n, who is Salvadoran, had never been to M\u00e9xico and had not cooked its cuisine before. But he had been to Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles, and was also paying attention to Alta California restaurants like Broken Spanish. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot you can learn about Mexican culture here in Los Angeles,\u201d says Mor\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot you can learn about Mexican culture here in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Francisco Mor\u00e1n<\/p>\n

The chefs behind Evil Cooks<\/a>, Amiga Amore<\/a>, and Macheen<\/a> each turned successful pop-ups into critically lauded restaurants. Both Alex and Elvia Garcia of Evil Cooks have been named James Beard Foundation Award semifinalists for Best Chef: California<\/a>, as well as Amiga Amore\u2019s Danielle Duran Zecca. The Garcia\u2019s are known for aggressive, playful takes on tacos such as the McSatan; a cheeseburger taco; and La Bruja, a flan taco set on a cr\u00eape-style tortilla. A short trip north of Evil Cooks in El Sereno, find Highland Park\u2019s Amiga Amore, which blends the cultures of Italy and M\u00e9xico on the plate. Dishes such as elote agnolotti, spicy Mexican corn\u2013stuffed pasta dusted with homemade Taj\u00edn and queso Cotija, as well as huitlacoche cacio e pepe that\u2019s earthy from corn smut, a traditional Mexican ingredient, illustrate the many lenses Alta California can take.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing how much recognition that Mexican cuisine was getting during that time, like Broken Spanish and just following chef Ray Garcia, and feeling he came from the same background as me inspired me,\u201d says Macheen chef Jonathan Perez. Mushroom al pastor tacos at Milpa Kitchen (formerly Milpa Grille) and Zacatecas-style chorizo burgers at Distrito Catorce reflect some of Perez\u2019s greater contributions to Alta California fans across Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

In Burbank, chef Enrique Soltero introduced more sophisticated chilaquiles, chicken tinga masala tacos, and spicy breakfast sandwiches served with fine coffee at his casual cafe, Amor a M\u00ed, a restaurant that would be right at home in Mexico City\u2019s Roma neighborhood<\/a>. Branching out of Holbox, chef Fatima Juarez created the award-winning Komal<\/a>, following the traditional molino trend that has swept over Mexico the past few decades. (Juarez also cooks superlative Mexican antojitos<\/a> made with nixtamalized heirloom corn.) She\u2019s not a standard Alta California chef: the menu celebrates Latin diasporic deviations, like Guatemalan chuchito that represents her team members who hail from the Central American country. It\u2019s the kind of blending that would only happen in Los Angeles. Over in Santa Monica, Rustic Canyon got in on the action with Rustic Cantina, a modern Mexican American pop-up helmed by chef de cuisine Elijah de Leon (while the cantina no longer formally runs, its dishes remain on Rustic Canyon\u2019s daily happy hour menu).<\/p>\n

\"Chicharro\u0301n<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicharro\u0301n. Peridot<\/p>\n

On June 21, 2025, the third-annual Disciples of the Corn dinner was held at Evil Cooks: Corazon Abierto. It had been moved from its original location, La Cocina de Gloria Molina, due to the ICE raids that had descended on Los Angeles on June 6. The featured chefs that evening were Danielle Duran-Zecca (Amiga Amore), Francisco Aguilar (Carnal, Sim\u00f3n), Enrique Soltero (Amor a Mi), Elvia Garc\u00eda (Evil Cooks), Crystal Espinoza (formerly Guerrilla Tacos), Jonathan P\u00e9rez (Macheen), F\u00e1tima Ju\u00e1rez (Komal), and Alex Garc\u00eda (Evil Cooks). As in the previous two editions of the masa-focused tasting menu, the dinner introduced diners to a journey through Mexico\u2019s sharp-cut regional cuisines.<\/p>\n

Cramped in the tiny Evil Cooks kitchen at the front of the restaurant, each chef explored microregions such as Espinoza\u2019s lardy tacos envenenados (poisoned) from the city of Zacatecas. Among the 32 courses, Soltero\u2019s tostadas de la siberia, named after the La Siberia restaurant chain in Monterrey and made with chicken floss, and umami-rich aguachile de carne asada, popular in the steakhouses and upscale taquer\u00edas of Hermosillo, soared. The dinner highlighted that the generation that founded Alta California cuisine have a legacy codified by the continuation of the genre and its modern interpretations<\/a>. \u201cI love how everyone helps each other. It\u2019s amazing how everyone comes together,\u201d Garc\u00eda told me at the time. He will host the next edition of the event on September 12, 2026, at the California State University, Los Angeles campus.<\/p>\n

Counting chef Enrique Olvera\u2019s Damian<\/a> and Gilberto Cetina\u2019s Michelin-starred Holbox<\/a>, modern Mexican cooking has never been better \u2014 or more vital to the chefs who uphold its history. \u201cI do this for love,\u201d Garc\u00eda says. \u201cIt\u2019s just friends cooking and having fun with a concept, and why not our roots as a concept?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new generation of Latino chefs has emerged amid ongoing ICE raids and an increasingly hostile environment toward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,75693],"class_list":["post-324972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-now-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}