The reason chef Angelo Sosa wanted to open a pair of new restaurants at the recently re-imagined Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort & Villas has nothing to do with his perfectly crisp tostones or out-of-this-world short ribs. “I’m obsessed with tennis,” teases Sosa, the seasoned chef and culinary personality who famously competed on Bravo’s Top Chef and won a challenge that sent his short ribs to the International Space Station. “Greg Dickhens, the owner of the hotel, and I are fanatics. We’ve gone to matches together in Indian Wells. That might be the underlying reason why I’m really here.”
Sosa is among several seen-on-TV chefs who have flocked to the desert in recent years to open new restaurants, citing the draw of the destination. Fellow Top Chef alum Fabio Viviani took over The Marketplace buffet at Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in 2022. Top Chef Masters competitors and former Food Network hosts Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger debuted the instantly popular Alice B. in late 2023 at Living Out, an LGBTQ+ resort community in Palm Springs. This fall, Top Chef: All-Stars champion and Next Level Chef mentor Richard Blais is poised to open Kestrel at Indian Wells Golf Resort.
Chef Angelo Sosa.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY JTRAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Their arrival — and the broader influx of chic dining concepts across the Coachella Valley — points to a growing culinary scene with a reach that extends well beyond the desert cities.
Besides easy access to the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, Sosa chose to establish restaurants Tía Carmen and Carmocha in Indian Wells because of his relationship with Dickhens’ Trinity Investments. The company also owns the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Arizona, where Sosa opened the original Tía Carmen in 2022 followed a year later by Kembara, a quirky Asian-fusion spot inspired by Sosa’s journeys to Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan and his experience cooking at lauded New York City restaurants Spice Market, Buddakan, and Morimoto.
“This is very personal to me,” Sosa says of his foothold in Indian Wells. “I’ve been here every day working to open these restaurants. I want to invest in the community, and I want the community to know that I’m here and that you can see me. I’m tangible. I’m approachable. I care. Cooking is my life because of my tía, so anything I can do to evoke that in people is important.”
Originally from Connecticut, Sosa was raised in a Dominican and Italian household where his father did most of the cooking. Young Sosa’s imagination was particularly captivated by the culinary prowess of his tía, or aunt, during family visits to Queens, New York. (“She wouldn’t touch her own food until she heard laughter and joy or complete silence because her food was that divine and magical,” he says.) Her creations, dishes like pollo guisado and a cabbage and caper salad with celery, are what Sosa credits with motivating him to become a chef.
Offerings at Carmocha include (clockwise from top left) a shareable seafood tower, craft cocktails with names like Pillow Talk and Notorious, and a cheeky interpretation of chicken pot pie that’s almost too adorable to eat.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JTRAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Tía Carmen pays homage to his aunt with a menu of elevated Latin dishes, while Carmocha serves small plates.
Sosa notes that intentionality is key at both venues — “Tía Carrrrmen” and “Carrrrmocha,” as he romantically calls them with a distinct roll of the tongue. For instance, his meticulous take on barbacoa at Tía Carmen relies on a flavorful cut of lamb belly, delicately topped with caviar and served not on tortillas but a silky spread of sesame leaves. Likewise, a roasted purple yam dish pairs with a mole that has been aged for more than two-and-a-half years. The restaurants are part of a $64 million renovation and rebranding of the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort & Spa, now the Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort & Villas.
In early 2024, Sosa participated in a James Beard Foundation dinner in New York promoting Palm Desert Food & Wine. The local culinary event returns March 20–23, 2025.
PHOTO BY ELIZABETH WILLENSKY, COURTESY PALM DESERT FOOD & WINE
Next door, a refresh at Indian Wells Golf Resort will include Blais’ latest restaurant, Kestrel. Named after the smallest of all falcons, “the restaurant sits on a perch” in the 53,000-square-foot clubhouse overlooking the Clive Clark–designed Celebrity Course, says Blais, who has cooked at such esteemed establishments as The French Laundry and Chez Panisse.
Like Sosa, Blais counts recreation among the many reasons he landed in the desert.
“It was the perfect opportunity for someone like me who loves beautiful places and resort living,” he says. “I also really, really love golf.” In fact, an afternoon on the course inspired the name of the restaurant. “I was out on the golf course early in the morning,” he recalls, “and there was this bird squawking over my shoulder as I hit one of the better shots of the day.”
Chef Richard Blais.
PHOTO COURTESY EMBER & RYE
Blais speaks with a contestant during an episode of Next Level Chef.
PHOTO COURTESY FOX
Kestrel is not Blais’ first foray into clubhouse dining. The executive chef, who clinched second place on Season 4 of Top Chef and has since appeared on a multitude of cooking shows, opened Ember & Rye course-side at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad in 2021. He shares that the Kestrel menu will balance expected golf resort fare, such as dry-aged steaks cooked over a wood fire, with flashier recipes incorporating molecular gastronomy techniques.
“It’s going to be a vibe where you could imagine seeing Frank Sinatra and Desi Arnaz hanging out with Harry Styles and Taylor Swift,” Blais says. “It’s the coming together of old and new, especially in relation to the food — whether it’s a couple of modern techniques or dishes that are centered on classic American cooking.”
If these dishes from chef Richard Blais’ Ember & Rye in Carlsbad are any indication of what’s to come at Kestrel, consider our forks and bibs ready.
PHOTO COURTESY EMBER & RYE
Besides Ember & Rye, he currently oversees the cheeky California English in San Diego and a pair of seafood-centric Four Flamingos locations in Florida. (The one in Orlando was recognized by the Michelin Guide.) He’s on the cusp of an empire, with six additional dining concepts in the works at a resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.
As a “cheftestant” on Top Chef, Blais was recognized as being ahead of his time, embracing out-there techniques like sous vide and liquid nitrogen before they achieved widespread appeal. While he promises that his signature liquid nitrogen margarita will make an appearance on Kestrel’s cocktail menu, Blais will offer no assurances that his golf game will improve once he’s made his mark in the Coachella Valley. “We’ll see,” he says. “I’ve been as low as a 14 handicap. I’m still at the beginning of that journey.”
