About me
Gaby Maeda is a Hawai'i born-and-raised chef in the Bay Area. She moved to San Francisco in 2008 to attend culinary school at California Culinary Academy. That led to an externship, which turned into a five-year stint at Restaurant Gary Danko where she worked every station and gained the fundamental knowledge of California cuisine. The next chapter involved an almost decade-long tenure at State Bird Provisions, where she advanced from line cook to Executive Chef. During this time, she was nominated as a finalist for the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 2020 and Food & Wine's Best New Chefs in 2021. After leaving the restaurant, she became the head chef for the nationally acclaimed queer cocktail bar, Friends and Family, in Oakland, CA owned and operated by Blake Cole. During this time, she was a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation's award for Best Chef: California in 2025. Since Friends and Family closed, Gaby continues to work alongside Blake on pop-up events & collab dinners while building the foundation for their next project in San Francisco.
