Who is Gabriela Camara from Netflix's Iron Chef? Mexican Chef was once a part of TIME 100 list

Mexican chef Gabriela Camara is all set to appear on Netflix’s Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend on June 15. In 2020, the author was included in Time's Most Influential People.

On Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, Gabriela Camara, as one of the five new Iron Chefs, will be giving the Challenger Chefs a tough time on their quest to win the Iron Legend. The official synopsis of the show reads:

“Five new trailblazing Iron Chefs will welcome brave Challenger Chefs to the reimagined Kitchen Stadium, where they’ll face off and be pushed to the limits of endurance and creativity, as they cook up extraordinary culinary creations. The competition’s most successful Challenger will return to battle in a grand finale for the chance to be named the first-ever Iron Legend.”

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All about Gabriela Camara from Iron Chef

Gabriela Camara is one of Mexico’s leading culinary diplomats who runs two iconic restaurants - Contramar in Mexico City and Cala in San Francisco. In 2019, she was appointed to the Mexican government's Council of Cultural Diplomacy and as an advisor to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The restaurateur and author, Camara was born in Chihuahua City and grew up in Tepoztlán with her brother. Her father is a former Jesuit priest who moved to Chihuahua City to build a school and a health center. Her mother, who completed a doctoral dissertation on mosaics in southern Italy, also joined the cause. Her mother grew up in Philadelphia. Cámara speaks English and Spanish fluently.

At 11, Camara took a yearlong sabbatical from studies and the family spent their time in the United States and Europe. Speaking about her parents, Camera told Vogue:

“Growing up with parents who are very different from everybody else’s parents everywhere you are is challenging but I was always very proud of them. And wherever we went, I always felt that we belonged. This is all to say that I was raised in an environment of total freedom by two people who believed I could do whatever I wanted.”

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Gabriela Camara’s culinary journey

Camara’s mother was the least interested in cooking and Camara was “mortified that in my house nobody made fresh tortillas” thus the chef took the matter into her own hands and started her culinary journey.

She learned how to make tortillas from her housekeeper when she was seven. She also learned various skills from her parents' colleagues and friends.

But it was her maternal grandmother who was an excellent home cook but had little patience with the fumbling of kids. Despite this, Camara was eager to learn more about cooking and watched her grandmother cook carefully. She opened up about her learning experience with her grandmother, saying:

“You had to be good to cook with her, so I got good.”

While she learned to shuck oysters and prepare octopus from her grandfather who took the kids fishing during weekends in Zihuatanejo. By the time Camara was a teenager, she and her brother were organizing dinners for big groups of friends with “Chilaquiles. Ceviches. Big lasagnas” on the menu.

In 1998, Cámara opened her first restaurant, Contramar, in Mexico City, which specializes in seafood. She started the eatery at 22 when she was in her final year at university. The idea of opening something of her own hatched over New Year’s party drinks. Since then, there has been no looking back for Camara.

In 2015, she opened the restaurant Cala in San Francisco. The advocate for social justice provides health insurance and other benefits to all her full-time employees. She also holds ownership of the Mexico City restaurants MeroToro, Capicúa and Barricuda Diner.

She published a cookbook, My Mexico City Kitchen, in 2019. A documentary film, A Tale of Two Kitchens, was also made about her restaurants. The film was executive-produced by the actor Gael García Bernal. She also runs an online Masterclass course where she teaches how to cook Mexican food.

Stream Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend on Wednesday to watch Mexican chef Gabriela Camara in action.