Chason Spencer and Maria La Motta are the couple behind Chancho King in Jacksonville’s Murray Hill neighborhood, and this year they went from neighborhood favorite to James Beard Award finalist. I visited with them to talk about pop-up days that sometimes netted $5, the origin of the Ecuadorian pork sandwich that started it all, and why Jacksonville’s food scene is still flying under Florida’s radar., but very worthy of your time. What follows has been edited for brevity and clarity, but the full conversation is on the podcast embedded below.

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Jesse: You two splashed onto the national scene with a James Beard nomination. That was this year’s cycle, rig

Chason & Maria: Yes, the 2026 cycle. We made it all the way to finalist and got to sit in the room with all the greats. It felt surreal, even just to be nominated.

Jesse: I’ve attended that ceremony. You’d have loved to win, but seeing people with passion equal to yours who did win is inspiring.

Chason & Maria: You’re in a room full of dreamers, and a lot of them are your idols. Andrew Zimmern was in our row, and Rick Bayless was right behind me. I was thinking, what is happening? We felt like the underdogs of the whole thing. I still find it hard to believe we got that far.

Jesse: How has the nomination changed your day to day?

Chason & Maria: The semifinalist nomination was like a cannonball in a small pond. We didn’t even know someone had nominated us, and we weren’t ready for that many people at once. We had to change how we prepped and how many people we had. Between January and June, we hired eight more people. We’d never had a dishwasher, because the cooks did the dishes, but suddenly we had to hire one.

Jesse: Where did you two meet?

Chason & Maria: In culinary school here in Jacksonville, at the Art Institute. Chason caught Maria in the hallway while signing up for the next semester’s classes. We’ve been together 12 years.

Jesse: Maria, you’re from Ecuador. Did you move here from there?

Maria: I moved to the States when I was about 20, and my whole family is still in Ecuador. I go back all the time.

Jesse: Tell me about your travels together.

Chason & Maria: We bought one-way tickets to Europe and treated it as our graduate degree, working our way around to see what else was out there. We finished the trip in Ecuador, living with Maria’s family, where Chason took in the culture and learned from her grandmothers. They’re still some of the best cooks he’s ever met, and they intimidate the crap out of you.

Jesse: Was opening a restaurant part of those conversations, or did 2019 just happen?

Chason & Maria: We came back with a grand idea for a big restaurant, then quickly realized we didn’t have a million dollars. We were deep in debt after a year of traveling without working for money. So we went back to the drawing board and asked how we could start from nothing.

Jesse: And that’s where the sandwich comes in.

Chason & Maria: The first time Maria brought Chason to Ecuador, she introduced him to a typical South American pork sandwich, a chancho sandwich. It resonated because Chason is a Florida-born Southern boy, and slow-roasted pulled pork makes sense to him. The guy who made it had a shack the size of a bathroom. That, along with our time in Mexico, showed us how simple and delicious food can be. We didn’t need a restaurant. We just needed to sell one good thing and get known for it. In Mexico you get one taco on one street, and it’s the same every Monday. We wanted to do that, with a pork sandwich, chips and a drink.

Jesse: Why Jacksonville?

Chason & Maria: We met here, and it’s become home. We’ve lived in our neighborhood since 2014. When we were living in Ecuador, we had no intention of coming back, but then we got a gut feeling that we had to go home. We became adults together here, so it’s where we planted our roots. Our food could exist in bigger cities, but Jacksonville is up and coming, and there’s a lot of potential in growing alongside a city that’s growing, rather than being a fish in a giant ocean.

Jesse: I first stopped at your restaurant in April, driving back to Savannah from Miami. It was my first look at Murray Hill, and I’ve since seen Five Points and Riverside. Duval isn’t just a big, spread-out suburb. You two saw that ten years ago, right?

Chason & Maria: Jacksonville is a city of small neighborhoods, each with its own character and culture, and the people make it. In Avondale and Murray Hill, I walk to work, which almost never happens in Florida. It feels a bit like Europe. On one strip we have our bakery, our coffee and our sports bar.

Jesse: Was the pop-up first, or the food truck?

Chason & Maria: The pop-up came first, and we did it for the first couple of years. It was a grind, and it ran right into COVID. We’d pop up for anybody who’d give us money for sandwiches. There were many days we made $5 and came back wondering what we were doing. Then one or two customers would keep coming back, or tell us it was one of the best things they’d had in a long time. That instant gratification was about more than money, and it kept us going. We knew we were doing something right and just had to get it in front of enough people.

Jesse: Without giving away any secrets, what makes this sandwich so magical?

Chason & Maria: First and foremost, it’s a labor of love, and you can taste love in food. But pork is a cut you can’t rush. Ours marinates for at least three days, then roasts overnight in an Alto-Shaam for a minimum of 12 hours. We let the liquid that comes off separate from the fat, take the fat out, reduce the liquid, and add it back to the pork. In traditional barbecue, they just put the liquids back in, and we’re refining that step. We also pick our pork to order and never pre-pull it, so it’s always juicy. Everything on the sandwich makes sense together. The tomato ají is mild with a nice acid cut, and the pepper ají has a kick. The pickled onions add texture and acidity, and the chicharrón adds crunch. That $7 sandwich takes about two weeks to make, with a whole fermentation shelf just for the sauces.

Jesse: And you’ve kept the price at $7.

Chason & Maria: Yes. We want to feed the masses. A sandwich, chips and a drink is still about $10 with tax, and anybody can grab that and have a decent meal.

Jesse: With the national attention, you’d think you lean upscale, but you’re essentially a neighborhood sandwich shop with a bigger menu.

Chason & Maria: We’re a diner, and we’re not pretentious at all. We have a fine-dining background, including time in San Sebastián, and I love that world. It’s a great creative outlet. But you have to be able to feed everybody. It’s far more satisfying to watch anybody eat your food. This is our community, where we live and where our kid is going to grow up.

Jesse: Why is Jacksonville’s food scene still flying under the radar in Florida?

Chason & Maria: Honestly, we’re hungry, but the attention goes to the bigger cities. We’re still figuring out our identity, though I think we’re close. In places like Birmingham, Alabama, the city pours money into the food scene and it’s a completely different city. I’m not sure how much more we can do on our end, but it’s simple.

Jesse: You’ve been bubbling up for five, six, seven years, and the Beard nod has brought some eyeballs. Maybe now people pay attention.

Chason & Maria: Not everyone’s a foodie. It’s about teaching the culture that great food exists and that people don’t have to go to franchises. They can have a great meal at a small mom-and-pop, with people who are pushing the boundaries.

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Eat It Florida with Jesse Blanco: new episodes every week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.

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