Joshua Gil, the former chef of groundbreaking Alta California restaurants including Mírate and Tacos Punta Cabras, died early this morning, according to his longtime partner Tharini Shanmugarajah. The chef who helped recontextualize and reimagine Mexican food in L.A. had battled cancer for four years. He was 50.
A spiritualist as well as a chef, Gil spent years of his life using food “to help bring people back into their bodies and really provide them with the nourishment to be grounded.” He said he cooked for chakra dinners, shamanic journeys and ayurvedic practices. He also co-founded an underground supper club called the Supper Liberation Front in 2009 to democratize fine dining.
He served vibrant, globally tinged Mexican cuisine such as tacos under crunchy chicharrón furikake; duck carnitas burritos; eggs Benedict with adobo hollandaise; and lamb flautas with feta and saffron-pickled fennel.
“I love providing for people,” Gil told The Times in 2025. “What we do, we do it from our heart and soul. It’s just love, and that’s what I want to share.”
Gil received a Stage 2 colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2022, and began chemotherapy the week before opening Los Feliz’s Mírate, a follow-up to Beverly Hills’ Mírame, which he also previously operated.
After multiple cycles of treatment and eventual remission, the cancer resurfaced in 2023 — this time at Stage 4. His treatments continued, and through it all he kept cooking and opened restaurants, including Three Flames — a combination taqueria and Mongolian barbecue in Westchester — and Maison Kasai and Mother of Pearl, an upscale teppanyaki spot and a seafood bar, respectively, both housed in downtown nightlife complex Level 8.
“I’m a very stubborn a—,” Gil previously told The Times. “I like telling people, ‘I’m Mexican. I don’t know how to give up.’”
He also spent his career mentoring rising culinary talent.
“There 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,” said Macheen chef Jonathan Perez, who cooked with Gil at Mírate. “When 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.”
On Monday morning chefs began sharing remembrances of Gil to social media.
“Some people enter your life and, in an instant, you know it will never be the same,” celebrated chef Dominique Crenn posted to her Instagram. “Life simply becomes better with them in it. Twenty years later, it feels as though no time has passed. Connections like ours are rare.
“Thank you, Josh, for your friendship, your laughter, your endless jokes, and your unwavering presence.”
“I will miss you!” San Diego chef José Cepeda posted. “Love you forever!”
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.
The Riverside-born chef partially credited yoga with “saving [him] from the kitchen,” and he viewed healing others as his “real” role. He said his years of treatments led to even more soul-searching.
“I literally almost died yesterday,” he told The Times in 2025. “It’s an interesting thing, because I’ve been sitting with our identities: who we are, our images of who we are. I haven’t donned the [chef’s] whites in a long time, and yet I’m still referred to as ‘chef.’ We never lose that. It doesn’t matter how away from the kitchen you are. You’re constantly being called ‘chef’ by those that know you as such, and it’s [hard] holding onto that livelihood, that lifestyle, all that ego.”
A friend who’d visited him last year asked whether restaurants would be his legacy. The question stumped him. Gil had more recently left his kitchens’ day-to-day operations because of his weakened immune system. But he continued mentoring.
“From early morning ingredient runs to busy services, tastings and relentless perfection in the kitchen, you showed us what true chef discipline looks like,” Asadero taquero Emiliano Martinez, a former Mírate cook, posted to Instagram. “We never wanted to disappoint you, and we never will. Your voice walking through the kitchen still stays with me.”
