A gate-first processing scheme for forming a nanomesh field effect transistor is provided. An alternating stack of two different semiconductor materials is patterned to include two pad regions and nanowire regions. A semiconductor material is laterally etched selective to another semiconductor material to form a nanomesh including suspended semiconductor nanowires. A stack of a gate dielectric, a gate electrode, and a gate cap dielectric is formed over the nanomesh. A dielectric spacer is formed around the gate electrode. An isotropic etch is employed to remove dielectric materials that are formed in lateral recesses of the patterned alternating stack. A selective epitaxy process can be employed to form a source region and a drain region.