Yakira Batres
Tomo | Seattle, WA
December 2025
Yakira Batres didn’t think much about food and beverage while she was growing up. Her parents, who had immigrated from Venezuela and Guatemala, were eager to assimilate into American life and hesitant to share their cultures and cuisines. But when Batres took a trip to Western Europe in her early twenties, everything clicked. The regionality of food and wine captured her imagination and fueled a lifelong interest in foodways and systems. Batres returned to the United States and staged at Knead Patisserie in San Francisco, California, where she learned the basics of pastry before enrolling in a culinary program at a junior college in Santa Rosa, California. After a stage at Redd, she joined the team at Oliveto before moving on to Octavia as a chef de partie. In 2018, she became the pastry sous chef at Luce. Batres then returned to Octavia as the restaurant's executive pastry chef.
During her time in the Bay Area, Batres also started to develop an interest in wine, tasting and expanding her knowledge at events like Sommelier Jirka Jireh’s Industry Sessions at Ordinaire in Oakland. When the pandemic hit, she stepped away from pastry and applied for a fellowship at Hiyu Wine Farm in Hood River, Oregon after an inspirational visit to their restaurant and vineyard. She joined the team soon after and spent the season working the harvest, learning about production and farming, and occasionally picking up a pastry shift in the kitchen. Batres stayed at the winery for the next four years, training under Winemaker Nate Ready and working as a sommelier at the winery's restaurant. She also studied wine and hospitality at MAD Academy in Copenhagen.
After some time working at a cidery and on a project of her own, Batres connected with Rising Stars alum Brady Williams. In early 2025, she moved up to Seattle and joined the team at Williams’ Tomo. As wine director, Batres relies on her various experiences—in kitchens, vineyards, and on the floor—to guide her selections and inform her natural-focused wine program. She is empowering and educating her team and carefully expanding the cellar with dynamic, lesser-known, and approachable wines that represent the hard work of farmers and winemakers around the world.
