i. Biography
The work reads as the product of disciplined kitchens and a style shaped by restraint, precision, and patience. In 2020, he received a StarChefs New York City Rising Stars Award, recognition that matched the character of the cooking: specific, controlled, and attentive to detail rather than spectacle. Across the arc of his career, the constant has been a measured confidence that lets ingredients register clearly and gives menu decisions real weight.
The Path
Training at Arpège, Le Comptoir, and Astrid y Gaston placed Diego Moya in kitchens known for exacting standards. Those rooms left a clear mark: control, clarity, and the kind of rigor that becomes part of a cook’s working language. He then served as executive sous chef at Hemlock in Lower East Side, New York City, before moving into the role of executive chef at Racines in Tribeca, New York City until 2019. The progression tracks through demanding dining rooms, each one adding to the composure and precision that define his practice. Today, Diego is chef of June.
The Work Today
The role suits a chef whose approach is built less around flourish than around structure: menu design with intent, clean lines, and a clear reason behind each plate. His cooking carries the discipline of his training, but it stays rooted in service, where ideas have to land with clarity and consistency.
Signature
Diego's signature dishes include Fluke, juniper, Tropea onion, sweet potato loaf with burned leaf butter, and Marinated Avocado Squash. Read together, they show a range that moves between cool and bracing elements and warmer, richer notes, with each dish pointing to a careful hand and a deliberate pace. The names themselves are spare, and that restraint does some of the work: the cooking does not need much framing to make its case.
In Their Words “It all starts with the design of the menu.” That line fits the way Moya works. Before the first plate reaches the pass, there is a structure underneath it: the order of the menu, the logic that gives the meal its shape. For a chef with experience in exacting kitchens, the menu is not just a list of dishes but the framework that holds the cooking together.
Acclaim
In 2020, Moya received the StarChefs New York City Rising Stars Award. StarChefs also identified Marinated Avocado Squash as a recipe by Chef Diego Moya of Racines NY, tying the recognition to a specific dish rather than a broad impression. In a career built on precision and steadiness, that kind of acknowledgment lands where the work is: on the plate and in the execution. The award sits alongside the rest of the résumé: Casa Mono in New York, Little Mountain in Montecito, and Racines NY. Each name marks another room where Moya’s approach was tested and refined, building the composed, detail-driven profile that now defines his work.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Diego
Where did Diego Moya train or study?
Diego Moya trained at Arpège and Le Comptoir.
