told The Times in 2025<\/a>. \u201cWhat we do, we do it from our heart and soul. It\u2019s just love, and that\u2019s what I want to share.\u201d<\/p>\nGil received a Stage 2 colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2022, and began chemotherapy the week before opening Los Feliz\u2019s M\u00edrate, a follow-up to Beverly Hills\u2019 M\u00edrame, which he also previously operated.<\/p>\n
After multiple cycles of treatment and eventual remission, the cancer resurfaced in 2023 \u2014 this time at Stage 4. His treatments continued, and through it all he kept cooking and opened restaurants, including Three Flames \u2014 a combination taqueria and Mongolian barbecue in Westchester \u2014 and Maison Kasai and Mother of Pearl, an upscale teppanyaki spot and a seafood bar, respectively, both housed in downtown nightlife complex Level 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a very stubborn a\u2014,\u201d Gil previously told The Times. \u201cI like telling people, \u2018I\u2019m Mexican. I don\u2019t know how to give up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He also spent his career mentoring rising culinary talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was deep respect to him and the way he paved the way for young chefs, especially the way he showcased Alta California and inspired others including myself,\u201d said Macheen chef Jonathan Perez, who cooked with Gil at M\u00edrate. \u201cWhen he had the opportunity to include me, he was always looking out for myself, and likewise would always check in [on] how was life and business.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday morning chefs began sharing remembrances of Gil to social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people enter your life and, in an instant, you know it will never be the same,\u201d celebrated chef Dominique Crenn posted to her Instagram. \u201cLife simply becomes better with them in it. Twenty years later, it feels as though no time has passed. Connections like ours are rare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Josh, for your friendship, your laughter, your endless jokes, and your unwavering presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will miss you!\u201d San Diego chef Jos\u00e9 Cepeda posted. \u201cLove you forever!\u201d<\/p>\n
Angelenos, especially the culinary community, rallied around Gil. In his years of chemotherapy and undergoing alternative medicines, they held fundraising food events to help pay for his treatments and transportation. A GoFundMe raised more than $61,000 last year.<\/p>\n
The Riverside-born chef partially credited yoga with \u201csaving [him] from the kitchen,\u201d and he viewed healing others as his \u201creal\u201d role. He said his years of treatments led to even more soul-searching.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally almost died yesterday,\u201d he told The Times in 2025. \u201cIt\u2019s an interesting thing, because I\u2019ve been sitting with our identities: who we are, our images of who we are. I haven\u2019t donned the [chef\u2019s] whites in a long time, and yet I\u2019m still referred to as \u2018chef.\u2019 We never lose that. It doesn\u2019t matter how away from the kitchen you are. You\u2019re constantly being called \u2018chef\u2019 by those that know you as such, and it\u2019s [hard] holding onto that livelihood, that lifestyle, all that ego.\u201d<\/p>\n
A friend who\u2019d visited him last year asked whether restaurants would be his legacy. The question stumped him. Gil had more recently left his kitchens\u2019 day-to-day operations because of his weakened immune system. But he continued mentoring. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom early morning ingredient runs to busy services, tastings and relentless perfection in the kitchen, you showed us what true chef discipline looks like,\u201d Asadero taquero Emiliano Martinez, a former M\u00edrate cook, posted to Instagram. \u201cWe never wanted to disappoint you, and we never will. Your voice walking through the kitchen still stays with me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joshua Gil, the former chef of groundbreaking Alta California restaurants including M\u00edrate and Tacos Punta Cabras, died early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[150245,7,9,8,4900,150244,150243,9788,1637,15024,1594,592,3239,315,1791,3299,8843,72],"class_list":["post-370727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-alta-california-restaurant","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-cancer","tag-former-chef","tag-joshua-gil","tag-kitchen","tag-life","tag-mirate","tag-other","tag-people","tag-stage","tag-time","tag-times","tag-treatment","tag-way","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370727","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=370727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}