Marcus Osorio is the chef de cuisine at Living Room, a private members’ club in Hollywood, and the founder of Molinito del Barrio, a small business producing fresh masa and other stone-ground corn products. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Osorio is of Salvadoran, Cherokee, and Sac and Fox heritage and cooks to honor the cultures and communities that shaped him.
Food became a means of participating in those communities early in his life. Osorio grew up working at a fry bread stand during fundraising powwows and helping organize benefit dinners for activist causes. Those experiences taught him to understand cooking as more than a profession or creative discipline. For Osorio, it can also preserve culture, nourish a community, and connect people with their histories.
His interest in becoming a chef developed during high school, when he spent classes researching recipes, reading about award-winning restaurants, and shopping online for cookware. Osorio graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 2021 and went on to work in restaurants across Los Angeles and Northern California. He credits chef Philip Tessier with teaching him the refined French poultry preparation that would eventually become part of his competition dish.
Osorio’s strongest culinary influence, however, comes from his family. His grandmother told him stories about growing up in El Salvador, where her mother operated a busy roadside comedor along the Pan-American Highway. The restaurant was known for its Salvadoran breakfasts, careful presentation, and willingness to feed customers who could not afford a meal. His grandmother continues to measure his cooking against that legacy, telling him that he carries his great-grandmother’s sazón.
Molinito del Barrio allows Osorio to extend that philosophy beyond the private-club kitchen. Through the business, he produces fresh masa and Central American dishes using heirloom corn sourced from Mexico. The project reflects his belief that carefully sourced ingredients and traditional techniques should not be limited to exclusive dining rooms.
Osorio’s signature dish for the 2026-27 S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition is Tamal de Pollo. It combines poulet farci, a classical French stuffed-poultry preparation, with masa, mole, and the flavors Osorio learned in his grandmother’s kitchen. The dish is intended to show that Latin and Indigenous culinary traditions belong alongside European technique at the highest levels of gastronomy.
For Osorio, competing also carries a representational responsibility. He wants young Latino and Indigenous cooks to see a place for themselves in fine dining while encouraging audiences unfamiliar with those traditions to experience them through food. His long-term ambition is to open a Los Angeles restaurant that operates as an accessible masa-focused café and comedor during the day before becoming an elevated dining destination at night.
Marcus Osorio is one of 10 chefs competing in the 2026-27 S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy U.S. Regional Final. Meet the other finalists vying for a place at the global Grand Finale.
