Lorena Garcia is a Venezuelan chef who has opened multiple restaurants and became famous through appearances on multiple television shows.
33 Facts About Lorena Garcia
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Lorena Garcia is known for the restaurants she currently owns in airports across the United States, and for competing on the show Top Chef Masters.
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Lorena Garcia's mother is Blanca Ibanez, a Venezuelan politician who served as secretary to former Venezuelan president Jaime Lusinchi.
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Lorena Garcia entertained her family by cooking for them and credits her success to these gatherings.
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Originally seeking to become a lawyer, Lorena Garcia attended Santa Maria University in Caracas, Venezuela and earned her law degree.
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Lorena Garcia then relocated to the United States to earn an associate degree in Paralegal Studies and took a class on speaking English.
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However, Lorena Garcia soon sensed that her passion wasn't in the field of law and felt the need to change her career path.
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Lorena Garcia chose to develop nutritional programs for childhood obesity to inspire families to reduce childhood health issues.
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Lorena Garcia finds it to be fulfilling to watch families make changes and gain their own inspiration through her programs.
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In 2002, Lorena Garcia opened Food Cafe in Miami's Design District.
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In February 2011, Lorena Garcia accepted a job as an executive chef at the Miami International Airport.
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Lorena Garcia recognized the need to provide comfort food to stressed-out travelers.
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Lorena Garcia Cocina provides travelers with dishes such as Shrimp Ceviche, Baked Empanadas, and Caribbean Jerk Chicken, in order to satisfy their cravings for nutritious and gourmet food while traveling.
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Lorena Garcia is the first female-Latin chef to be featured on the strip.
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One thing Lorena Garcia was introduced to growing up was obesity.
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Lorena Garcia created "Big Chef, Little Chef", in an effort to help end the problem of childhood obesity.
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The foods Lorena Garcia develops for "Big Chef, Little Chef" are Hispanic foods.
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Lorena Garcia continued her fight against obesity by working with Taco Bell.
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Lorena Garcia came to Taco Bell with hopes of creating variety within the menu.
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Lorena Garcia developed food for public schools through the organization "Alliance for a Healthier Generation" in 2011.
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Lorena Garcia ranked third among the twelve competitors on season four of the show.
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Lorena Garcia was a judge on both "Cocineros al limite" and "Top Chef: Estrellas".
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Lorena Garcia participated in the fourth season show Top Chef Masters, and she chose to compete for the organization Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
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Lorena Garcia made it through nine episodes, winning two quickfire competitions and two elimination challenges.
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Garcia's last episode called "Old School, New School", consisted of instructing a culinary student without getting involved in the preparation, and Lorena Garcia's dish lost to Kerry Heffernan's.
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Lorena Garcia participated as one of the investors and judges on NBC's "America's Next Great Restaurant".
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Lorena Garcia was on The Queen Latifah Show, The Talk, Guy's Grocery Games, The Chew, The Wendy Williams Show, and The Biggest Loser.
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Lorena Garcia was a guest judge in season 3 of Tournament of Champions.
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Lorena Garcia played a semi-fictionalized version of herself in several episodes of the Nickelodeon show Talia in the Kitchen.
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Lorena Garcia has many recipes, and she compiled many of those into a cookbook.
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Lorena Garcia is the author of "Lorena Garcia's New Taco Classics".
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On October 14,2016, Lorena Garcia launched an international reality show called Food Hunters, a cooking competition for children in which teams from Latin America compete for culinary scholarships.
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In 2022, Lorena Garcia was an honoree by the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Great Immigrant Award.