How a South LA nonprofit helped launch an award-winning chef's career

Chef Gilberto Cetina opened his award-winning Mexican seafood restaurant, Holbox, in 2017. It’s just a few feet away from his parents’ restaurant Chichen Itza, which he took over when they retired more than ten years ago. Both are located inside Mercado La Paloma, a garment-factory-turned-market in South Los Angeles that’s home to restaurants, retail, and nonprofit offices.

“My entire cooking career has been here in this building at Mercado La Paloma,” Cetina told “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal. “Chichen Itza is the culmination of my parents’ lifelong dream, and Holbox is mine.”

Cetina and his family first immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1985, when he was five years old.

“Like most immigrants, my parents had lots of different jobs,” Cetina said. “My dad focused on culinary jobs and did his passion, which was cook traditional Yucatecan food, as a side hustle.”

Cetina and his mother and sister started to help, doing things like shredding chicken for tamales to sell after church. Cetina’s parents went on to open their own restaurant, Chichen Itza, in 2001 inside Mercado La Paloma.

“It was the only place my dad could open a restaurant,” Cetina said. “He didn’t choose Mercado La Paloma amongst other options.”

A nonprofit called Esperanza Community Housing Corporation opened Mercado La Paloma in an effort to bring business opportunity, jobs, quality food, and more to the neighborhood.

“The nonprofit helped my family out with loans, small business training, basic accounting, these things we didn’t have and were outside the reach of our resources,” Cetina said. “They cosigned loans for my dad to buy equipment.”

On the morning Ryssdal visited Cetina, he was nominated for his third James Beard award. He is a 2026 semifinalist for Outstanding Chef for his work at Holbox. He was previously nominated for the award in 2025 and was also a finalist for Best Chef California in 2023.

To hear their conversation, click the play button at the top of the page.