Daniela Moreira Is a 2017 Eater Young Guns Winner

Winners of the national Eater Young Guns 2017 awards were announced in NYC Thursday night, and chef Daniela Moreira of Timber Pizza Company earned a spot on the list.

The annual search to recognize the best and brightest talent in the restaurant industry has a catch: They must be under 30 or have less than five years of experience. This year, Eater received more than 1,000 nominations, including chefs, bar managers, restaurateurs, distillers, and more, in 101 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

Timber Pizza, which started as a popular pop-up, found a permanent home in Petworth a year ago. The wood-fired pizza itself is inspired by Neapolitan pies, though not strictly traditional. She grew up eating pizza — her brother is the one who taught her how to make it when they were growing up in Argentina, where Moreira was born.

In an Eater Young Guns profile of the 27-year-old, Sarah Weldon writes:

All Daniela Moreira has to work with at Timber Pizza is a wood-fired oven. Well, that and a handful of ingredients. It’s a challenge that Moreira faces every day at Timber in the Petworth neighborhood of D.C., where she serves as executive chef. But it’s one that Moreira accepts with open arms: Figuring out how to cook something amazing with minimal materials is all just part of the thrill. “I always like a challenge, and I’ve always been very, very competitive," she says. "Especially when it comes to pizza."

Read more about Moreira and Timber Pizza here. Details on all of the Eater Young Guns 2017 winners are here.

Warren Rojas

Moreira was up against her Petworth neighbors for the D.C. Young Guns title: Himitsu’s Carlie Steiner and Kevin Tien (beverage director and co-owner; executive chef and co-owner) were semifinalists, as was Paolo Dungca, chef de cuisine at Restaurant Eve.