Gilberto Cetina Jr

The Climb

The 2024 Michelin star on Holbox reads as a measure of control: over seafood, over timing, over the balance between Yucatán tradition and Los Angeles produce. Gilberto Cetina Jr built that language over time, drawing on family knowledge and coastal Mexican memory while working with ingredients from L.A. The result is a kitchen style that treats sourcing as part of the craft, not an accessory to it.

Today

At Holbox in Los Angeles, the cooking is organized around Yucatán seafood traditions and the produce available in the city. Gilberto Cetina Jr uses that overlap to keep the food direct and legible: seafood handled with care, acid used with purpose, and ingredients allowed to keep their own character. The work depends on discipline rather than flourish, with each plate built to show how inherited technique can hold up inside a contemporary Los Angeles restaurant.

Signature

Scallop Aguachile and kanpachi ceviche tostada sit at the center of Cetina’s style. The dishes rely on clean acidity, defined texture, and the kind of restraint that lets seafood read clearly on the palate. Their force comes from precision rather than complication, which is what gives the cooking its distinct shape: brisk, exact, and built around the ingredient.

In Their Words The line points to the cost of building a restaurant before the market catches up. It places the work of Holbox in the category of persistence: holding a standard, keeping the kitchen moving, and continuing to refine the food through a long stretch of financial pressure. The statement is plain, and that plainness matches the discipline it describes.

Recognition

Michelin star (2024), James Beard Awards finalist, Best Chef: California (2023), and Los Angeles Times Restaurant of the Year (2023) place Gilberto Cetina Jr’s work in repeated view from different parts of the trade. The recognition tracks with the same qualities visible in the kitchen: consistency, technical control, and a clear point of view that has remained legible as the audience has widened.