Next Level Chef will return for a second season, with mentors Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington, and Richard Bais. The culinary competition will include 18 well-known chefs competing to develop unique dishes and win the grand prize. Pilar Omega, who has previously prepared for the Emmys, Oscars, and NFL events, is one of the contenders slated to feature on the program. As her aspirations altered, she became a private chef a year after having a mother in 2016. Watch the program on FOX following Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, February 12 at 10.30 p.m. ET.
Pilar Omega, a Next Level Chef season 2 competitor, has opened her catering prep kitchen, Soul Fusion.
Pilar Omega, the CEO and chef of Soul Fusion, will participate in Season 2 of Next Level Chef. She has almost a decade of expertise in professional kitchens and enjoys assisting people in eating better and living happier, more fulfilling lives.
According to her website:
“She concentrates her cooking as a chef on providing fresh, delectable cuisine that promotes optimal health and wellness. Her recipes are innovative, inventive, and nutritious, with outstanding nutritional content.”
In a 2021 interview with Voyage Los Angeles, the chef said that she has been interested in cooking since she was five years old and that food was a big part of her life. Her family had a variety of culinary traditions, and her father would often produce a spicy sauce she enjoyed. The Next Level Chef candidate said that she had always wanted to explore, prepare, and taste different things and that traveling allowed her to do so. During her undergraduate years, she would often do health-related presentations at local fairs. This enabled her to give back to the community via food, and by 2011, she was 27 years old and had launched a farm-to-table deli in Redford, Michigan.
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When she returned to Los Angeles the next year, she was motivated to be a part of the culinary industry there and sought job options that would allow her to establish a name for herself. She was quickly employed by Home Girls Cafe and went on to finish a sushi apprenticeship at Sushi Row. Her intensive training enabled her to work as a sushi chef at Benihana in Santa Monica.
She later worked as a sushi chef and “Grab n Go lead” at Wolfgang Puck Catering. During her stint with the catering firm, she assisted in the catering of the Emmys, Oscars, Governor’s Ball, NFL events, Sony studios, and other events. She quit the well-known catering firm to work as a private chef. Before Covid, she worked as a full-time cook for some of the biggest names in music. She was able to work on her branding during the lockdown, and she finally founded Soul Fusion, her own catering prep kitchen.
The Next Level Chef season 2 cast member talked to Voyage Los Angeles about the challenges she experienced in the culinary profession. She noted that, despite the fact that being a black woman in the sector was a challenge, she was able to carve her own route due to the lack of diversity in the food industry. She will now participate in Next Level Chef season 2 for a year-long mentorship with a world-renowned chef as well as a grand prize of $250,000.
