Lorena DeCristofaro, art teacher, has not seen her classes in more than two weeks since joining a competitive cooking TV show in Mexico. While she cannot disclose much information about the show due to her nondisclosure agreement, she was able to talk a little about her cooking career thus far.

DeCristafaro started cooking around the age of 10 after growing up watching her mom and grandmothers. Since then, she’s learned to cook a broad range of dishes. DeCristofaro has been told often she should “do a ‘thing’ with [her] cooking” so when COVID hit and pushed everyone into isolation, she decided to start a YouTube channel.

Her channel is called Lorena DeCristofaro Creative Cooking where she has 92 subscribers. Since early 2020, DeCristofaro has posted six videos making everything from Kiwi Cucumber salad to Enfrijoladas.

Although DeCristofaro doesn’t think her channel is what inspired producers to cast her. “I think I ended up in this TV show by luck…maybe I interviewed well. Maybe I did a good job in the casting audition,” she mused.

DeCristofaro said she is “not sure what will come of this experience,” it will certainly be exciting. When asked her advice to others who want to pursue cooking she goes on to say “…tap into your memories. Explore new flavors and take risks.”

Updates will follow as the show airs.