Chef
Marc Zimmerman
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Venue
- Gozu · Restaurant
i. Biography
His cooking language at Gozu was never only about beef as luxury, but about attention, range, and use: “We’re kind of showcasing the nuance and the versatility of the breed rather than just kind of a steakhouse characteristic.” That sentence reads like a thesis and a mood at once—less a slogan than a window into the way Marc Zimmerman thinks about the table. In his hands, wagyu becomes not a single-note symbol of indulgence but a material to be studied, stretched, and made to speak in different registers.
The Climb
Marc Zimmerman trained at The Culinary Institute of America, a foundation that suggests discipline before flourish, technique before expression. From there, his path led him to work as chef-owner at Gozu in San Francisco (2019–2024), where the restaurant’s identity could be felt in the precision of its focus and the confidence of its scope. He has moved through the city’s dining landscape with a quiet sense of momentum: today, Marc is chef-owner of Yokai (since 2023), chef-owner of The Wild (since 2024), and chef-owner of Superprime Steakhouse (since 2025). The progression is not just a list of openings, but a widening circle of addresses, each one carrying his name forward while allowing the work to evolve.
Today
In August 2024, the former Gozu space was renamed The Wild. Zimmerman has been chef-owner there since 2024, and his own words give the change a precise emotional temperature: “It feels fresh. It gives us the ability to stretch more.” The phrase “stretch more” feels especially revealing. It suggests a restaurant that is not merely continuing under a new sign, but changing its posture—making room for motion, for experimentation, for a broader kind of conversation between kitchen and diner.
In Their Words “We’re kind of showcasing the nuance and the versatility of the breed rather than just kind of a steakhouse characteristic.” “Over the past 10 years I’ve been doing a lot of research and working in Japan with farmers.” Taken together, these lines sketch the contours of Zimmerman’s thinking with unusual clarity. There is the breed, the research, the farmers in Japan, the long span of 10 years—each phrase reinforcing that his work is built on observation and accumulation rather than impulse. The emphasis lands on nuance, on versatility, on the idea that an ingredient can hold more than one identity when approached with care.
Recognition
The clearest recognition attached to Zimmerman’s work is the specificity of the restaurants themselves: Gozu as a 2019 wagyu steakhouse, and The Wild as the August 2024 renaming of that same space. Those facts show continuity without sameness: one room, one city, a changed name, and a chef-owner using the shift to widen the frame. The craft note that follows him is wagyu, but not as shorthand. His language points to farmers in Japan, breed, versatility, and the responsibility to use more than the obvious cuts. That is the idea running from Gozu into the newer work: ingredient, animal, room, and restaurant name all treated as parts of a living argument.
Profile updated August 2026
FAQ
Asked of Marc
Where did Marc Zimmerman train or study?
Marc Zimmerman trained at The Culinary Institute of America.
