Two California chef-duos have gotten a major endorsement from one of the restaurant industry’s most prominent organizations.
The James Beard Foundation has named its class of 2026-2027 TasteTwenty chefs, recognizing its members as “ones to watch” from 20 different markets across the country. Among them are the chefs of two restaurants from California: San Francisco’s Maria Isabel and Los Angeles’ Little Fish. The TasteTwenty series, which will produce its signature Taste America events in each of the selected chefs’ hometowns, aims to “showcase the centrality of American food culture and celebrate diverse communities, leading the way to a future culinary industry where all can thrive,” according to the foundation.
Chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz from Maria Isabel, who were named James Beard Award semifinalists in 2024 and 2025 for their popular restaurant Dalida, opened Maria Isabel in Presidio Heights in early March. Unlike Dalida, which opened in the Presidio in 2023 and quickly became a tough reservation to snag thanks to its bold Mediterranean flavors, Maria Isabel explores Laura’s Mexican heritage. (Laura and Sayat previously worked at Saison and Mourad, respectively, and the couple opened the now-shuttered Mediterranean restaurant Noosh in 2019.)
Maria Isabel is a highly personal restaurant named for Laura’s sister and mother. It explores the flavors of Guerrero and Sinaloa, the place where Laura’s father grew up.
“I think as a chef you go through different phases of what you want to cook,” Laura told SFGATE in March. “I never wanted to identify myself as a Latina chef that could cook only Mexican food. I always wanted to learn multiple cuisines.”
Meanwhile, Anna Sonenshein and Niki Vahle, both alums of now-shuttered seafood restaurant Son of a Gun, started LA’s Little Fish as a pandemic pop-up that served fried fish sandwiches. The pair first opened a window in Echo Park before debuting a sit-down restaurant in Melrose Hill in late 2025, where the two serve elegant, sustainability-minded seafood dishes like a “beach sandwich” (soy-cured mussels and potato chips on ciabatta) and stuffed cabbage with abalone rice.
“The coolest thing is that we already have regulars,” Sonenshein told SFGATE in January about the store’s opening in Melrose Hill, which has become one of the city’s hottest dining destinations. “It feels like ‘Cheers.’ We’ve been so welcomed.”
According to the James Beard Foundation, the chefs selected for TasteTwenty must have talents beyond the kitchen as “champions of positive change — from supporting sustainable agriculture, investing in their teams, elevating quality ingredients, advocating for a more resilient food system, and more.” Last year’s selections included Azalina Eusope from Azalina’s in San Francisco and Vivian Ku from LA’s Joy and Pine & Crane.
The TasteTwenty series will hold events in LA in October 2026 and San Francisco in February 2027.
Dining and Cooking