Cody Ma with Misha Sesar.
i. Biography
Chef and co-owner at Azizam in Los Angeles, California, United States, Cody Ma’s work sits in the discipline of restaurant craft: long service, tight coordination, and the slow accumulation of judgment. At Azizam, that shows up in a room shaped by intent rather than noise, with Ma helping build a dining experience that ties kitchen work to memory and the way food moves between generations.
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The Climb
co-owner since 2024 The title marks a sustained stake in the restaurant’s daily making, where identity is not fixed on paper but reinforced through service, repetition, and follow-through. Since 2021, Ma has been part of the team shaping Azizam’s direction, working where hospitality, memory, and execution meet.
Today
At the Los Angeles restaurant, Ma is chef and co-owner. In practice, that places his work inside the restaurant’s tempo and character, in the details that separate a place with a point of view from one that simply follows the room. In Los Angeles, where the field is crowded and standards are visible, Azizam has to earn attention through consistency, warmth, and clarity. Ma’s role is central to that effort.
Career Azizam, Los Angeles, California (2024–present) - Chef and co-owner — Azizam, Los Angeles, California (2024–present)
Signature
Cody's signature dishes include Kofteh Tabrizi. Within Azizam’s kitchen, the dish reads as a marker of the restaurant’s approach: deliberate, layered, and built with attention. It asks for time, and in that regard reflects the values behind the cooking. In Ma’s hands, signature work is about staying power rather than display.
In Their Words The quote places food in its practical role as a bridge when language is limited. It points to the table as a working space for connection, where memory and care can be carried through repetition, flavor, and labor. For Ma, that makes the restaurant part of a family line as much as a professional one.
Recognition
In 2024, the restaurant’s flagship dish was Kofteh Tabrizi, a large, labor-intensive meatball made with five to six herbs, rice, split peas, fruit, walnuts, apricots, and dried barberries. The dish’s structure suggests a lot of moving parts brought into one form, and that complexity tracks with the kind of work Ma is associated with: measured, detailed, and built on the premise that effort is readable in the finished plate.
FAQ
Asked of Cody
What is Cody Ma known for?
Cody Ma is known for his chef and co-owner role at Azizam and for Kofteh Tabrizi.
What are Cody Ma's most notable roles?
His notable roles include restaurant manager at Pine & Crane and chef and co-owner at Azizam.
The Sunday email
Read about chefs like Cody Ma in the Sunday email.
Every Sunday we send a lead story and up to four more about the chefs, winemakers, sommeliers and hoteliers behind the restaurants, bars, wineries and hotels we cover.
Recent stories
Free. One email a week, and you can unsubscribe from any issue.