Ecuadorian chef nominated

María Delia La Mota of Jacksonville restaurant Chancho King is a 2026 James Beard Award nominee in the Best Chef: South category. (jamesbeard.org) The James Beard Foundation announced this year’s restaurant and chef nominees on March 31, 2026, and said winners will be revealed on June 15 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (jamesbeard.org) Chancho King is in Jacksonville’s Murray Hill neighborhood, and local coverage identified La Mota and Chason Spencer as the husband-and-wife chefs behind the restaurant’s finalist run. (jacksonville.com) The Beard nomination puts an Ecuadorian-born chef into one of the foundation’s U.S. regional chef races, a structure that groups candidates by geography rather than by cuisine. The foundation says the Restaurant and Chef Awards recognize excellence in culinary arts, hospitality, and the broader food system. (jamesbeard.org) La Mota’s restaurant has built its identity around Ecuadorian cooking in Northeast Florida. The Ponte Vedra Recorder reported in June 2025 that Chancho King’s owners described it as the only Ecuadorian restaurant in that part of the state. (pontevedrarecorder.com) That menu traces directly to La Mota’s family cooking. The Recorder said recipes came from her grandmother, and that the restaurant’s name uses “chancho,” the Ecuadorian Spanish word the owners use for pork. (pontevedrarecorder.com) Chancho King did not start as a full-service restaurant. The owners told the Recorder they began as a street-food vendor in 2019, then moved to a food truck before opening their brick-and-mortar site on Talbot Avenue. (pontevedrarecorder.com) Florida business records list Chancho King LLC at 1314 Talbot Avenue in Jacksonville and name Maria Delia La Mota Guerra and Chason Spencer among its managers. (bisprofiles.com) La Mota first appeared on the 2026 Beard awards track as a semifinalist announced on January 21. The March 31 list moved her into the final nominee field, with the winner still to be decided in Chicago in June. (jamesbeard.org)