On June 22, chef Joshua Misael Gil, a pioneering chef of Alta California cuisine who was known in Los Angeles as a founder of the Supper Liberation Front, Tacos Punta Cabras, Mírame, and Mírate, passed away after a nearly four-year battle with cancer.
Gil was 50 years old. The chef maintained a deep passion for cooking during his illness, reviving his Tacos Punta Cabras menu in the former Three Flames Mongolian Barbecue restaurant near Los Angeles International Airport in February 2025, months after nearly succumbing to cancer.
Gil was born in Riverside, California, on January 17, 1976 to Gabriel and Nellie Gil, from Sonora and Sinaloa respectively, where he lived until age 6. From ages 7 to 15 he lived in Playas de Rosarito, where his family had strong ties and where he formed a deep connection to Baja California cuisine. In the early 1990s, Gil and his family moved back to Riverside, where he got his first opportunity to cook for people outside of his home. The aspiring chef worked alongside his mother at a care facility where he prepared salads, main courses, and a baked potato topped with vegetarian chorizo — a big hit with the patients, he told me when I interviewed him while writing my book LA Mexicano. As a counterculture chef, Gil was most inspired by the interactions with guests and worked to cook food that was accessible to Angelenos from all walks of life.
He succeeded in the fine dining world as chef de cuisine at Joe’s Restaurant on Abbot Kinney Boulevard at a time when Joe Miller’s eponymous restaurant earned one Michelin star in 2008. Only 32 years old at the time, Gil had already cut his teeth since his teenage years in various upscale hotels and at places like Inn of the Seventh Ray and the Jonathan Club. Still, Gil had grown restless: He took a shot at being a punk musician for brief period. In his eyes, he was never well suited for what he saw as the constraints of fine dining restaurants.
In 2009, Gil found the perfect vehicle for his creative impulses: his Supper Liberation Front was co-founded with chef Daniel Snukal to offer the LA-style of fine dining defined in the late aughts to early 2010s by restaurants such as Animal, Lazy Ox, Church and State, and Red Medicine. At Supper Liberation Front, multi-course tasting menus with piquant beef tongue terrine, sweet lamb carpaccio accompanied by paneer and eaten with naan, and tart blue mackerel with ume gelee and shiso ran anywhere from $35 to $45, if you could snag a seat.
At his pop-up inside Santa Monica’s Utopia bar in 2012, Gil was offered the space where, on a whim, he could serve Ensenada-style fish and shrimp tacos, ceviches, and tostadas from the region he called home. In February 2013, Gil’s very personal take on Ensenada’s famed fish tacos, Tacos Punta Cabras, opened in the midst of a vibrant culinary movement by fellow Mexican-American chefs that included Wes Ávila, Carlos Salgado, and Ray Garcia, some of the parents of Alta California cuisine, a style of modern Mexican cooking forged with California ingredients by Pocho chefs who were well-versed in California haute cuisine and Mexican antojitos.
This was the first time Gil had made waves cooking the way he wanted. The Supper Liberation Club slogan, “Food for the People, By the People,” was realized at Tacos Punta Cabras, named after a small community south of Ensenada known for its surf breaks. The taquería remained popular with a loyal cult following until closing in 2017 due to issues with their landlord.
After years as kitchen rebel, Gil opened his first upscale Alta California restaurant, Mírame (now closed), in July 2020 in Beverly Hills. Los Angeles restaurants had been ordered to cease indoor dining due to the coronavirus pandemic, so, on its modest outdoor patio, Gil served tuna tostadas topped with sea urchin, fried snapper fish tacos, and an over-the-top hanger steak. Grilled hanger steak with churritos, a typical fried snack, and shrimp-stuffed squash blossoms embodied the kind of maximalist cooking Gil had prepared back in his Supper Liberation Front era. When Gil opened his Los Feliz follow-up Mírate in November 2022, he had already been diagnosed with Stage II colorectal cancer and begun treatment.
Still, he continued to open Mother of Pearl and Maison Kasai at Level 8 at the Moxy, and brought back Tacos Punta Cabras’s tacos and tostadas at Three Flames as he tried both holistic and conventional methods to fight his cancer. On good days, he would come in and make an appearance at one of his restaurants, moving around to greet guests using a cane.
On social media, Baja California chefs and winemakers expressed their condolences and deep sadness over the loss of a comrade. “Some chefs teach techniques; Josh taught dedication, character, and a love for the craft,” said chef Roberto Alcocer of Valle in Oceanside. “He was a Chicano chef that was a proud ambassador of Mexican culture, I will miss him dearly.”
“He was a true revolutionary on both sides of the border bringing culinary unity on both sides with the SLF popups he did here in Baja,” said chef Diego Hernandez of Valle de Guadalupe’s Diego. “It’s a tragic loss.”
He leaves behind a legacy as trailblazer of Alta California cuisine, mentor to many young chefs like Macheen’s chef Jonathan Pérez and José Cepeda of Quixote at San Diego’s Hotel Lafayette, and many friends who have supported him every step of this harrowing journey. On Saturday, June 20, Cepeda served Mirame’s fried snapper dish at Quixote as a tribute to the chef.
Gil is survived by his parents Nellie and Gabriel Gil; his children, Maya and Aaron Gil; Lola Gil, his ex-wife and mother of his children; and his fiance, Tharini Shanmugarajah, who, along with his loving family, was with him until the end.
