In November, chef Joshua Gil almost died. In February, he opened his new restaurant.
“I’m a very stubborn a—,” Gil quipped lately. “I like telling people, ‘I’m Mexican. I don’t know how to give up.’”
The prolific chef began pioneering pop-up dinner collection Supper Liberation Entrance in 2009, and went on to open and shut celebrated eating places together with Tacos Punta Cabras in Santa Monica and Mírame in Beverly Hills. Because the founding chef of Mírate in Los Feliz he cemented himself as an area chief of Alta California cooking.
Now he’s serving one other menu of Mexican delicacies — alongside Mongolian barbecue — from a Westchester strip mall, whereas additionally battling Stage IV most cancers.
Gil and his group of chef-partners lately flipped a neighborhood spot on Manchester Avenue recognized to locals for some 50 years as Three Flames Mongolian BBQ. The brand new Three Flames stored the flattop and can will serve Mongolian BBQ, reimagined, together with Baja-inspired fried seafood tacos, burgers, loaded fries and a number of the metropolis’s most artistic new tostadas and specials.
A trio of Baja-inspired, tempura-battered tacos from Three Flames in Westchester. From left: scallop, native rock cod and mushroom with cauliflower and wakame.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
Regardless of years of well being hardships, Gil gained’t cease cooking.
He acquired his Stage II most cancers prognosis in 2022. The next yr he helped open the lauded Mírate in Los Feliz, then two eating places in downtown’s maze-like Stage 8, a sprawl of eating places and bars inside the Moxy Lodge. Then, he quietly launched an Italian restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga.
Why open eating places within the midst of Stage IV colorectal most cancers?
“I love providing for people,” Gil stated. “What we do, we do it from our heart and soul. It’s just love, and that’s what I want to share.”
Going through challenges
In late 2024 and into 2025, Gil underwent months of antibiotic therapies for an an infection whereas additionally finishing rounds of chemotherapy. The toll it took on his physique almost killed him, he stated.
Concurrently, he mounted a authorized case. In November, Gil filed arbitration in an fairness dispute along with his former Mírame and Mírate enterprise companion Matthew Egan, alleging contract fraud; the grievance is pending in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket. “Out of respect for all parties, we are not able to comment on ongoing litigations,” a consultant for Egan instructed The Instances.
The final six months have been eventful for the chef. “There were people [who were] super surprised that I was even functioning,” Gil stated.
However he didn’t need his medical or authorized strife to delay his newest undertaking, which debuted in February. Gil tapped Anthony Rodriguez, with whom he’d cooked at each Mírame and Mírate, to go up the kitchen as Gil continues to battle most cancers — and ponder life, mortality and spirituality.
Gil stated spirituality has lengthy performed an necessary position in his life. He practices shamanic healings and feels a few of his most fulfilling moments come when his expertise overlap: cooking for individuals throughout these ceremonies and offering individuals “with the nourishment to be grounded.” Sometime he’d wish to open a non secular retreat, the place meals would play a task.
For now he’s targeted on reprising a few of his previous achievements in a brand new gentle at Three Flames.
The albacore tostada with sea beans and sesame salsa at Three Flames.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
One in all Three Flames’ hottest objects is a brand new albacore tostada impressed by Gil’s Sonora-raised grandmother, whose uncle was a Chinese language chef. Household lore included a recipe for rooster with sesame salsa; Gil created his personal model, which now tops greens tossed in Key lime juice and burnt-habanero salsa, buttery albacore and chicharrón furikake.
The restaurant’s made-to-order tortillas use recent masa from the adjoining Maria’s Tortillas. The tacos are full of gluten-free tempura-fried scallops, shrimp, rock cod or a mix of mushroom, seaweed and cauliflower.
“It might look like a little taco shop, but the recipes are legit,” Gil stated. “There’s a lot of layers to everything. I want it to pop. I want people to feel it in their heart. I want you to feel the love that we’ve been putting into it.”
The informal eating room of Three Flames.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
Gil and his group introduced new life to the unique restaurant’s hibachi recipes too, tweaking the substances and drawing on strategies from Gil’s high-end teppanyaki restaurant, downtown’s Maison Kasai.
At Three Flames the group switched the beforehand used udon to recent yakisoba noodles. They’ve added extra greens to the Mongolian-barbecue combine, and new sauces. A brand new shrimp choice riffs on shrimp toast, forming it right into a patty and throwing it into the noodle combine (it’s additionally a burger).
Not everybody’s been thrilled with Gil’s new path; a number of longtime Three Flames followers requested why they will not select their stir-fry greens from a fridge, which Gil eliminated to make room for extra seating.
The twin format of taqueria and Mongolian grill can be a frequent trigger for confusion.
“People walk in and they’re like, ‘Wait, what?’” Gil stated. “We still have the Mongolian grill because we want to pay homage to what’s been there, and what built the foundation of the spot.”
‘I can’t actually do all of it’
However with a strained immune system and a requirement for relaxation, Gil spends much less time on the grill and extra time mentoring. He helps steer the group and collaborates on specials equivalent to butchering a complete tuna head for tuna machaca, or chopped clams with aguachile granita and Gil’s “Mexikosho,” a Mexican spin on yuzu kosho made with Meyer lemons, serrano chiles and Key lime.
“I can’t really do it all anymore, so I’m doing this with him [Rodriguez] and a couple of my other chefs,” Gil stated. “They need to be owners.”
Three Flames’ grill in motion.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Instances)
Today he sees Rodriguez because the chef, and himself as a prepare dinner who generally creates recipes.
“I’ve been sitting with our identities: who we are, our images of who we are,” he stated. “I haven’t donned the [chef’s] whites in a long time, and yet I’m still referred to as ‘chef.’ We never lose that. It doesn’t matter how away from the kitchen you are. You’re constantly being called ‘chef’ by those that know you as such, and it’s [hard] holding on to that livelihood, that lifestyle.”
It’s, he stated, somewhat just like the Sufistic perception in ego dying: of “dying” earlier than bodily dying by separating one’s self from the notions or titles of who he’s.
Gil doesn’t know what comes subsequent for his culinary profession or his life as he continues to battle most cancers.
However he is aware of that he desires Three Flames to function a device in bringing extra love into the group. He plans to reprise and host his long-running, cross-cultural underground supper membership there, bringing the renegade, experimental Supper Liberation Entrance and its rotation of nameless cooks to the small strip mall in Westchester — one taco, Mongolian stir-fry or thriller fine-dining course at a time.
Three Flames is positioned at 5608 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, and is open each day from 11 a.m. to eight p.m.
