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Alan Sanz brings Latin tradition and evolution to LA kitchens
In the heart of Los Angeles, at Mirate and Daisy, the rhythm of the kitchen hums like a well-rehearsed melody, sharp knives tapping, pans sizzling, laughter weaving through the steam. Behind the pass stands Alan Sanz, a Mexico City–born chef whose food is as much about memory as it is about technique.
“I’m not the chef with the romantic story of growing up cooking with my grandmother,” he says with a smile. “But I do have a lot of memories of eating her food.”
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Sanz was born into a family with roots that stretch across Latin America, Oaxaca on his mother’s side, Michoacán and Argentina on his father’s. Food, he admits, was always present, even if his fascination came later. “I wasn’t interested in the process,” he says, “but yes, in the final result, the eating part. I’ve always been a good eater.”
Meet Alan Sanz in our exclusive Storytellers interview
From Bananas to the Line
One of the first things he ever cooked was his aunt’s banana cake, her signature dish at every family gathering. “At some point I asked her for the recipe and started modifying it,” he remembers. “Adding ingredients, switching things… I was already in culinary school, trying to be creative.” That banana cake, humble as it was, marked the start of a journey that would take him far beyond the family kitchen.
As a teenager, Sanz dreamed not of kitchens but of music. “I thought I was going to be a rock star,” he laughs. But when his father told him to find a job, he ended up washing dishes. It was there, in the back of a bustling restaurant, that he discovered his passion.
“I noticed the guys cooking were having so much fun. The jokes, the fire, the energy, I wanted to be part of that. So I asked the chef if I could help in the kitchen. He said yes, but I still had to wash dishes.”
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Sanz juggled both roles until, eventually, the chef promoted him. Then one day, unexpectedly, he fired him. “He told me, ‘You need to go to culinary school.’ I was upset, but I realized he was right.”
That moment changed everything. “I went home and told my parents, ‘I know what I want to do. I want to be a chef.’”
A Journey Across Continents
Culinary school led Sanz to kitchens across Argentina, Chile, Spain, and France. He absorbed the discipline and precision of European technique, mastering sauces, butchery, and plating. Yet, something was missing.
“All my style was based on what I learned abroad,” he says. “But I was missing those Latin flavors, the way we eat, the way we feel food.”
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That realization brought him back home. He returned to Oaxaca, where his grandmother’s open-fire kitchen had once filled his childhood summers with the scent of smoke and masa. “I moved there for a couple of years to learn from the cocineras tradicionales, to study ancestral recipes, native ingredients, and techniques. I wanted to understand the roots.”
Tradition as Evolution
For Sanz, tradition isn’t something to preserve under glass, it’s something alive. “To have tradition, you have to understand where everything comes from,” he says. “Without tradition, there’s no evolution. And everything that doesn’t evolve, dies.”
That philosophy defines his food today. At Mirate, he celebrates Mexican ingredients through a global lens, heirloom corn, Oaxacan chiles, and Michoacán spices meet French sauces and Argentine-style fire. It’s not fusion for the sake of novelty, but rather an honest reflection of who he is.
“Every story I tell through my food is personal,” he explains. “It’s about my journey, the moments that shaped me.”
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Now, at the helm of two of LA’s most talked-about restaurants, Sanz sees his work as a conversation between past and present. “I’m still building something,” he says. “For now, I just want to keep growing with Mirate and Daisy and try to be one of the best.”
It’s a long way from the dish pit where it all began, but the spark that drew him to the fire still burns. And as he continues to honor his roots while redefining what Mexican cuisine can be, one thing is certain: Alan Sanz has found his voice, and it tastes like home, evolution, and fire.
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