MIAMI
This is How Diana Martinez Went From 19-year-old Prep Cook to Running Uchi Miami
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By Eric Barton | Sept. 9, 2025
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Every kitchen has its own mythology, some tale of a dishwasher or sous who ended up in places the new guy just isn’t going to believe. At Uchi Miami, the legend goes like this: a teenager walks in, still juggling culinary classes, takes a job cutting vegetables, and in just four years, is running the place.
Her name is Diana Martinez, and she started at Uchi Miami at 19, a prep cook just trying to keep up with the pace.
“What I remember most from those early days is the culture of Uchi and the sense of camaraderie among the team,” she says. “I quickly learned the importance of precision, discipline, and teamwork—skills that have continued to guide me throughout my career.”
That culture carried her through the ranks, and now Martinez is chef de cuisine, sitting at the helm of one of Miami’s most talked-about restaurants in the city. At an age when most chefs are still wandering from one kitchen to another, she’s leading one where Japanese traditions meet Miami’s anything-goes approach to flavor.
Yellowtail with ponzu and Thai chili
Roots in Downtown Miami
Martinez grew up in downtown Miami, the daughter of a Honduran mother and a Mexican father. Her childhood meals were the kind of food that abuelas put on tables to feed everybody. “Some of the most influential elements were the vibrant spices, comforting stews, and fresh ingredients featured in both Honduran and Mexican cuisines,” she says.
That sense of rootedness turned out to be a good match for Uchi’s approach, which is grounded in classical Japanese technique but open to reinterpretation. Martinez found she could respect tradition while letting her own influences—bright, tropical, and distinctly Miami—filter through the menu.
Building a Collaborative Kitchen
Ask Martinez what makes Uchi different, and she won’t point first to the dishes. She talks about the people. “As I now lead the kitchen, I strive to foster the same openness and spirit of constant learning that shaped my early career,” she says. That means encouraging input from every station, making sure the voice of a new cook carries as much weight in the creative process as a senior chef’s.
Bluefin akami Crudo
Halibut with romesco and coconut beurre blanc
Her collaborative spirit extends outside the restaurant. A joint project with chef Niven Patel, for instance, produced bites that married Indian flavors with Uchi’s precise aesthetic. “Working with a talented legend exposes me to new perspectives,” Martinez says. Collaborations like that aren’t gimmicks—they’re sparks that push her to weave in unexpected flavors while keeping the integrity of the cuisine intact.
Walking the Line
For Martinez, the job is a constant act of balancing: honoring tradition while pushing boundaries. She bases those decisions, she says, on whether the change improves the guest experience. Sometimes that means strict adherence to Japanese technique. Other times it means letting a Miami ingredient slip into the mix, transforming a classic into something new.
The toughest part of her leadership style, she admits, is hanging onto creativity during the crush of service. “When the pressure is on, it’s easy to shift into execution mode and rely on what’s familiar,” she says. But she makes a point of keeping her team open to fresh ideas, even in the middle of a slammed dining room. It’s a discipline as much as any knife skill: protecting the space for creativity to survive.
Fried milk with salted fudge
Off the Clock
When she does get a rare day off, Martinez isn’t looking for omakase menus. “We love to take out the Black Stone Griddle and make smash burgers and invite all our friends to share and build memories,” she says. It’s the same thing she learned at her parents’ table growing up—food as a way to gather people.
And that’s what she’s still doing now, only with sashimi and nabe instead of stews and burgers: running a kitchen where technique matters, creativity thrives, and warmth holds it all together.
