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Meet Chef Isabel Coss!

Meet Isabel Coss, executive chef at Pascual on Capitol Hill and pastry chef at Lutece in Georgetown, whose sold-out master class happens on Feb. 23.

The Hill Center impressed chef Isabel Coss the very first time she visited, and long before she knew she’d be teaching there. 

Washington City Paper named her one of its Change Makers for the 2024 People Issue and had brought the group in for a photo shoot. “I fell in love with the place,” she says. “I thought it would be the perfect spot for building a sense of community—and then I saw all the activities listed!”

It echoes how the ebullient, 33-year-old Mexico City native feels about opening Pascual on Capitol Hill, which is celebrating its 1-year anniversary in February.

“We love the neighborhood,” she says. “It has character. With chef-husband Matt Conroy, “we looked for a restaurant space for three years…this one just seemed right, and not only because it has two hoods that allow for the kind of grilling needed for our kind of Mexican food. The people here were so welcoming right from the start.” (FYI, Pascual tries to keep some of its coveted seats always available for its Hill neighbors.)

Like so many chefs, Isabel is unfazed by working 12-hour days, five or six days every week. Her passion and commitment are evident in the ingredients she sources and what she puts on the plate. That, in turn, has earned kudos including a recent nod as a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic; RAMW’s Pastry Chef of the Year in 2024; among Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs in 2023; Eater’s Best New Restaurant 2024; No. 1 in The Washington Post’s Spring Dining Guide; one of the 50 Best New Restaurants in the New York Times; featured as a rising star chef in Forbes magazine; and among the 100 Most Influential Latinas named by Latino Leaders magazine.

She is equally dedicated to supporting community efforts, such as the annual Chefs for Equality gala (“SO much fun to hang out with the best chefs in the city!”) and the nonprofit OurFarm DC, which helps combat food insecurity and produces fresh specialty ingredients for Pascual. Recently, the restaurant partnered with the Yeti company—and a Google $$ match–for a raffle that raised money for victims of the Los Angeles fires. The winner was someone from Capitol Hill, and that pleased Isabel even more.

For International Women’s Day, Isabel will return to Mexico City to host a charity dinner and join an industry contingent for the annual Women’s March against gender-based injustices. She’ll return just in time to host a mezcal-spirited anniversary event for Pascual.

“We want to make it better…always better,” she says. And if you missed out on her upcoming master class, Isabel vows: “It’s the first, and it won’t be the last!”

Learn about all of Hill Center’s cooking classes here

–Bonnie S. Benwick, for Hill Center

Biography for author: 

Bonnie Benwick is the former deputy food editor and recipes editor at The Washington Post. She is a freelance editor, recipe tester/developer and consultant. She has led Hill Center’s annual Holiday Cookie Baking class since 2013. Bonnie returns April 9th to lead yet another Cooking for One (or Two) class. Details and tickets here: https://www.hillcenterdc.org/event/cooking-for-one-or-two-featuring-veteran-food-writer-bonnie-benwick-quick-easy-sweet-savory/

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