Reinventing Life at 53: An Escoffier Student’s Journey to MasterChef

TRANSCRIPT

Kirk Bachmann: Hello everyone, my name is Kirk Bachmann and welcome back to The Ultimate Dish! Today, we have an extraordinary guest: Daniela Peregrina, a 53-year-old plant-based culinary student right here at Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts.

Born in the U.S. and raised in Mexico by a Serbian mom and a Mexican father, Daniela’s diverse background has shaped her deep connection to food, blending flavors from different worlds.

Recently, she showcased her talent – and I mean talent – on MasterChef: Generations, Season 14, where she competed as part of Team Gen X, taking a bold step toward realizing her lifelong dream of becoming a chef.

But that’s not all. Daniela is a traveler at heart, and through her global adventures, she has explored authentic local flavors that inspire her culinary creations.

Her passion? Taking recipes from across the world and transforming them into innovative plant-based dishes, bringing her love of food and her plant-forward philosophy together in a delicious harmony.

And as an empty-nester, Daniela decided to follow her heart and dive into the world of food—and she hasn’t looked back since.

Today, she’s here to share her inspiring journey, her passion for plant-based cooking, and what it means to live a life dedicated to flavor and creativity.
So get ready: this conversation is sure to be a feast for the senses!

And there she is. Good morning. Good morning for me and you, I think. How are you?

Daniela Peregrina: Yes. Good morning, Chef Kirk. Doing well. It is a bit early and kind of cloudy here, so hopefully there’s enough light.

Kirk Bachmann: Tell our guests, our students, and everyone who is listening, where is “here?” You’re in California right now, right?

Daniela Peregrina: I’m in what would be called central California. We’re on the northern tip of southern California. It’s a little, small community in the most southern part of the Southern Sierras. That was a lot of southern. It’s a town/city, and it’s beautiful. It’s called Tehachapi, California. Everybody knows that I’m there since the show.

Kirk Bachmann: I love it. I love it. What’s the largest town that we would recognize – or city – that we would recognize to you?

Daniela Peregrina: We are forty-five minutes from Bakersfield.

Kirk Bachmann: Got it. Now I’ve got the visual. Okay. Okay. Very good. How are you feeling today?

Daniela Peregrina: Doing well, thank you, chef. I’m excited to be here. I was telling you: you know what? There are all these amazing bios that I was reading about the people on the podcast, and I just started listening to the podcast recently. I didn’t even know we had a podcast, though. I’m glad I started listening to it, and it’s been great.

The Three Aprons

Kirk Bachmann: I hope our producer is taking notes there. You didn’t know that we had a podcast. But you’re here because you’re an amazing person! I love it. It’s really special for me. We haven’t had that many students, but we’ve had a fair amount of students over the years on the show. I’m super, super excited. Your energy is infectious. We’ll get to all of that.

But I have to tell you: your social media presence is insane. It is authentic. It is transparent. It’s real. It’s fun. There’s another reel – I don’t want to pull it open right now – the beautiful aprons. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Daniela Peregrina: Oh, yes. The three aprons that I wear. I have three aprons that I switch in between. Of course, the Escoffier apron that I use when I do my school work. That’s the most recent apron. Going in order of appearance, that is the most recent.

Then the previous apron, which was the MasterChef apron that I wore for my duration on the show. It’s the apron that I use whenever I do any type of community service, or I go out to do events. One of the things that I did say about that apron is I will wear it only when there is a cause attached to it. If I can help a community-based food bank or something. It’s a very special, very special apron but also a very powerful tool to be able to open doors [and] be able to do that. I’m very honored to have received that one.

The first apron was the “Believe” apron with the dragonfly. That apron is an apron that…I went into a local bakery one day. It’s a German bakery here in town. Very good bakery. People come from all around to visit it. I went into the bakery, and there was this woman wearing an apron that said, “Believe,” and it had this big dragonfly. It was tie-dye. The three things that I love. And it’s purple.

So I said, “Oh my gosh, your apron is gorgeous.”

She takes off the apron, gives it to me, and says, “I’m going to give this to you because I’m being told that you need a sense of belief. You need to believe in your dream. You need to believe in something, so here’s this apron.”

I don’t know her name, but I’ve worn it. I wore it during my audition taping for MasterChef, while I was doing my videos at home.

They’re special in every way. One represents [that] you have to believe. You have to do what you want to do. Your dreams are valid. The other one represents the dream coming true, and the Escoffier is the possibilities of all the dreams that are to come.

Kirk Bachmann: Oh, I just love it. When I read about the aprons and was going through the script, I thought to myself – I don’t know if you have aspirations to open up your own restaurant – but imagine a restaurant called Three Aprons. There you go, right there. I’m going to sell you that trademark, okay.

Daniela Peregrina: Ooh! Ooh!

Kirk Bachmann: A name has to have a purpose. I love that you refer to one of the aprons as a tool. As a tool to connect to your community. Absolutely love that. So you should write that down. Three Aprons. That’s going to be your restaurant.

Daniela Peregrina: I will keep that in mind, Kirk. I don’t know if I’m going to open up a restaurant at this stage in my life. The restaurant industry is very demanding. I think that I want to keep it small. Very small. Maybe a little cafe.

Kirk Bachmann: I could see you doing a cafe called Three Aprons. I absolutely love it.

Daniela Peregrina: Three Aprons.

A Place in the Theater

Kirk Bachmann: You know, I’m not surprised that you were a theater kid, by the way, when I see your performances on social media. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Who was the younger Daniela?

Daniela Peregrina: My theater days started in college in Mexico at the University of the Americas. Growing up, I was a really, really shy girl. I was very quiet. I was the one in the back of the room. I never said anything. So when I went off to college, I was dating someone, and he decided he wanted to go into theater to join the theater company.

I said, “Okay, if I want to spend time with him…but I can’t do theater. I’m going to break down. I’m so nervous. I can’t do this.” It was a double dip. It was like I wanted to spend time with him, but at the same time, I wanted to also open up and become a little less shy.

It started there. Then I didn’t do theater for years and years, up until about fifteen years ago. I had the opportunity at a local community theater. They had a part that was open for a ten-minute play. The author of the ten-minute play reached out; it is a good friend of mine.

She said, “I have this part, and it’s perfect for you. It’s a Latina mom with two daughters.”

I said, “I can’t do theater. That was years ago. That was college.”

She goes, “Please, can you do it?” Unbeknownst to me at the time, I met the person that is now my fiance. There’s a story behind that.

Kirk Bachmann: It’s fate. It’s fate.

Daniela Peregrina: We were on stage. It was fate. We were on stage together. At the time, I was married to my son’s dad. We’re the best of friends; nothing bad happened. Everything ended as it needed to end when it ended. Later on, Rick, who is my fiance, and I reconnected and started to date. The rest is history. We’ve been together for eleven years now.

Kirk Bachmann: I love that. What’s a ten-minute play? I love that. That’s my attention span, right there. Ten-minute play.

Daniela Peregrina: A ten-minute play is like a TikTok play, right? They do a playwright’s festival, and they have local playwrights. Anybody who wants to submit a play submits a play. They choose about anywhere between six to eight plays, and the audience gets to watch these little segments.

Kirk Bachmann: Oh, so a series of them. Okay.

Daniela Peregrina: It’s a series of them. Think of it as just random plays. Some are comedies. Some are dramas. Some are just very avant garde. You get to vote at the end of the evening for your favorite playwright. It’s mostly black box. Black box is when you don’t have a big set. You have mostly black boxes that are painted. The set is painted black. You use some props, but it’s not a full-on stage. There’s a lot of movement, which keeps you awake for the next play. Then you get to vote which is your favorite play after the two-week instance when they are showing. Then they give an award, which is called the Golden Quill. Then the Silver Quill, and of course, the Bronze Quill.

An International Upbringing

Kirk Bachmann: That’s amazing. We’re always learning. I had no idea. That is so super cool. I love that.

Let’s talk about food a little bit and what your connection with cuisine was like growing up. Sort of a Serbian-Mexican-United States background. Tell me a little bit about what it was like growing up. Sounds like lots of flavors.

Daniela Peregrina: There were a lot of flavors, a lot of music, a lot of people. I mostly grew up – my early years were around the Serbian and Bosnian cuisine because my grandmother was Bosnian. My grandparents put on these big parties. They were mostly faith-based. They were Orthodox. In the Orthodox-Serbian religion, there is a festivity for every month. There was something going on. My grandmother would cook these extraordinary meals for people that would be coming and going. She would take days. Everything was made from scratch. She ground her own nuts for the cake.

Kirk Bachmann: Oh wow.

Daniela Peregrina: She made baklava. She made stuffed cabbage that she had brined the cabbage months before the event. Food was very important in my family. You walked into my grandmother’s home, and you didn’t [ever leave] hungry. She kept bringing food out. We called it You keep eating and eating. Mezze.

My mother is also an extraordinary cook. She would make fresh bread every single day. I grew up here in the States up until the age of seven, then my parents decided to move to Mexico. My mother would send us lunches made with homemade bread. It would be a baloney sandwich, but it would be homemade bread. I always thought my lunches were so boring because I’d look at the kid next to me and go, “Hey, you want to trade?”

Kirk Bachmann: I love that story. It sort of connects. I grew up in a European family in Chicago in my family’s bakery, fourth-generation cool. The same thing. My lunches were different. Fresh products that looked different [from] everyone else around me who had Wonder Bread, Hunts Snack Pack and all of that. I did not appreciate it then like I do now, and I’m sure you appreciate it now because it’s helped define who you are and how you approach food.

Daniela Peregrina: Absolutely. And thanks, Mom. Because it really was an experience that, at that age, I did not understand. I unfortunately did the same thing to my son – or fortunately did the same thing.

Kirk Bachmann: Fortunately.

Daniela Peregrina: He has his family. He appreciates it, but he would say, “Why can’t I have a Lunchables. It’s so boring!”

Kirk Bachmann: Kids, I have four kids – I’m taking your picture – they like to be like everybody else.

Before we get to flavors and stuff, one of the episodes I was watching, Aaron Sanchez was on. I just loved watching your emotions, almost your deep respect for Aaron, for Chef Sanchez. What was that dish? It was so colorful. The judges loved it, and you roasted the chile versus frying it, and I remember they all commented on that. Do you remember what that dish was?

Daniela Peregrina: Yes. That’s the dish that earned me the apron. It’s called Chiles en Nogada. It is actually – a lot of people – consider it the national dish of Mexico. What it is, it’s a dish that is only served between the end of August and the end of September because September 15 is the Mexican Independence Day.

It has a rich history behind it because it was created to celebrate the winning of the insurgents in the independence fight for Mexico. It was created by nuns in Mexico, and it’s based on the ingredients that were available. The story goes – we don’t know if this is completely historically accurate – the story goes that all of the women of the fighting soldiers were brought to monasteries where the nuns were, and the nuns would protect them and take care of them. Either they’re betrothed or they’re wives or such, if they were single.

When the independence was won, the general came and said, “I want you to create a dish that has the three colors of the Mexican flag in the standard, which is green, white, and red, and something that represents our independence so that we can celebrate.”

So the Mother Superior said, “Okay, we need to put something together. It’s around fall time.” In Mexico, in the Southern part of Mexico in the higher elevations, there is a fall. So they had nuts. They had pomegranates. They had apples and pears. So this dish has a sauce that is made with white nuts, normally walnuts that have been peeled – the brown part – with goat cheese and cream. Then the chile is toasted. On the inside, you have dried fruits. You have plantains and peaches, apples, pears, all chopped up in a mix. The chile is filled with it. And then it’s decorated with pomegranate seeds and parsley to give the green and the red.

So what I did, I reduced the pomegranate juice into a molasses and I drizzled that over. That was the dish. I cannot say. I was scared. I did not want to do that dish because I said, “They’re going to think this is crazy. There’s sweet. There’s sour. There’s spicy. There’s creamy. There’s smoky. There’s way too many flavor profiles in this.”

Kirk Bachmann: More than anything, there was a story. That’s what people love. Was that the sherry and pomegranate reduction?

Daniela Peregrina: Yes.

From Theater to Teaching

Kirk Bachmann: I was watching that video on social media as well. Unbelievable.

Then, you were a teacher for twenty-five years and also helped coach small businesses with social media. Of course. I’m not surprised at all. Tell us everything. How did you fall into teaching? Clearly, teaching adds tons of value when you’re helping someone learn how to cook. Tell us about the coaching, the teaching, the reiki practice. How does that all come together and connect with your love of cooking? Just tell us everything.

Daniela Peregrina: That is a great question. Thank you for asking that. It has all happened almost in a magical way.

I started off. You were asking about theater. In college, I was actually pursuing a degree in International Relations because I spoke several languages. I went to a German school. I spoke Serbian, Spanish, English, and then I was in Switzerland for a year, so I spoke French. I said, “You know what? I’ve got this in the bag. I’m going to be a translator for the U.N. That’s the dream. I’m going to go work for the U.N.”

Well, things happened, and I wasn’t able to complete my education at the University of the Americas. I was in Puebla, Mexico, and I needed a job. There was a job opening at this English school, called the Anglo-American School, that teaches English in the afternoons to children and adults. It was for a secretarial position. I went into the interview, and it was a British gentleman.

He goes, “So, you’re a thespian.”

I go, “A what?”

“A thespian.”

I said, “I don’t know what that is.” Because my English was kind of [rusty.] I’d been here until seven. I didn’t have a very extensive grasp of English. He had to explain it to me.

He said, “You’re a theater kid.”

I said, “Oh, yeah. I was in the theater at the University.”

He said, “You would make an amazing teacher.”

I said, “Really?”

He said, “You’re not going to be a secretary. I’m going to give you the opportunity to have an education as a teacher. Fully-paid, as long as you stay with us for a few years and work to develop curriculum based on your experiences in the United States and the education you received.”

And I said, “Okay.” I went to school for three years, became an ESL teacher – English as a Second Language – and I didn’t even know I wanted to be a teacher. But then I said, “Okay, you’re never going to get me out of the classroom. I love to teach.” So I taught in Mexico. I was an English teacher in Mexico for children. When I moved here twenty-five years ago, I transferred that knowledge into becoming an English as a Second Language teacher for immigrants, for farm-working children, for their parents, and to help children who have just arrived to the country to get that first experience of English and that basic knowledge of English.

Kirk Bachmann: Did you say you also studied German as well? Sprechen sie Deutsch auch? [Do you speak German, too?] [00:18:59]

Daniela Peregrina: Ein bischen, ja.

Kirk Bachmann: Ein bischen. So how many total languages do you speak?

Daniela Peregrina: Five. Well, I’ve lost a lot of the German and the French because I don’t have anybody to converse with, which is why I’m looking forward to Ducasse.

Trying New Things

Kirk Bachmann: You can call me and talk German. We’ll get you back up to speed for sure.

Tell me a little bit about the reiki.

Daniela Peregrina: Yeah, the reiki. I have rheumatoid arthritis, and it’s an autoimmune disease that debilitates you. Someone said, “Have you ever considered doing reiki?”

I said, “I don’t know what that is.”

They explained it to me. They said, “It’s your energy and how your energy is used. You have the chakras.”

I said, “Okay. Let me try it out.” I took the first level; there’s three levels. I took the first, and I liked it. I took the second and the third. You get attunement. It’s almost like your graduation.

Right before the pandemic started, I had opened up an office where I was going to practice reiki and life coaching because I had also gone to school to become a life coach. I know. There are so many different things. I love to learn. Then the pandemic hit, and I wasn’t able to do any practices. I had to shut down the office. I started basically doing it for myself or our animals. It’s one of the little tools in my tool bag.

Reiki actually talks about the chakras and how we can eat according to what we need. For example, if you feel financially unstable, that’s your roots chakra. That’s your bottom chakra. The things that you have to eat in order to heal that chakra is, for example, potatoes, beets, all roots, earthy food. It’s interesting because it really helps when you eat with the seasons. It helps when you eat with your chakra as well.

Kirk Bachmann: Was the idea, Daniela, of becoming a chef also something that was always looming in the back of your mind? Was that an ultimate dream? Obviously, you grew up with beautiful food and experiences. Was it something that you thought about as well?

Daniela Peregrina: When I was a little, [like] a lot of little girls, we played cooks. We would cook with our dishes and such. In my head, I always thought I’d have this big kitchen. I’m not just serving one person; I’m serving hundreds of people. It was in the back of my head, and it was one of those dreams that you just shove in the back.

Then my younger sister went to culinary school several years ago in Arizona. I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh! She’s doing it.” She doesn’t work in the industry, but she has all the skills and she’s amazing. I thought, “I’m too old to do this.” It was something that would always pop up, and I would think, “I’m just too old.” I was a mother. I had to raise a child. Then once I became an empty-nester, [I thought] “I can’t go and work in a busy kitchen.” Then I realized that Escoffier had an online program. I said, “Okay. Should I do it?” It was about one o’clock in the morning when I applied for Escoffier. I thought, “No. They’re not going to accept me. I’m too old.” I keep telling myself that, but now I don’t anymore.

It’s been an amazing experience. I’ve learned so much. I can’t wait to learn more. Every single time we start a new session, I think, “Okay. What’s next?”

The MasterChef Experience

Kirk Bachmann: I love it. You mentioned, Daniela, that competing on MasterChef inspired you to reset your life – again, it sounds like – and pursue a new career. Let’s talk about that for a little bit. This was really interesting.

First of all, congratulations for being on the show. That in itself is an amazing, huge accomplishment. For those who don’t know, our listener, Season Fourteen of MasterChef – I can’t [believe it]. Season Fourteen. Wow! It’s been such a smashing success. Season Fourteen brought together amateur cooks from four generations. I just love this. Millennials, Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Z, to prove – to your earlier point – that age does not matter in the kitchen. Can you walk us through what that experience was like? What it was like to audition? How did it feel to be on camera, and the butterflies? Are you competitive by nature?

Daniela Peregrina: I really am not. I compete with myself. I’m very competitive with myself. At one point, Joe Bastianich said, “Classical Gen X overachiever.” Gen X – we compete with ourselves a lot. That was interesting.

Kirk Bachmann: That’s a good point.

Daniela Peregrina: That’s an interesting dynamic to see.

Kirk Bachmann: That’s a good point. So walk us through. What was that audition like? Did you have to fly somewhere and be really quiet about it, not tell anyone? Was it a secret?

Daniela Peregrina: It was. I actually applied for MasterChef Season Thirteen, which was United Tastes of America where they did chefs from different regions of the United States. I got pretty far through the process, and then they said, “Thank you. No thank you.”

Then last year around this time, around October, I get a call. “Hey, would you like to reapply.” I thought they were punking me.

“Are you serious? Is this really happening?”

They go, “No, no, no. This is really MasterChef.”

Kirk Bachmann: So flattering though. That’s so flattering. Wow!

Daniela Peregrina: It was. I was floored. It was such an amazing experience. The interview process started at home. They send you emails where they ask you to produce a filet mignon, or show us your elevated plating. Of course, like you said, chef, we are all home cooks. We’re not professionally trained. No one has been in a kitchen and worked. This is all very rudimentary.

They say, “We need it a little more elevated.” They push you even during the interview process which is where I started loving plating because I hadn’t realized, yes, my plating was pretty, but it wasn’t elevated.

They pushed, and then they said, “Now try this. Now try this. You have this much time to return the results.”

Finally, from what I understand and they told us, there were close to forty-thousand people that had applied. They flew approximately a hundred people out to L.A. I’m close by, so I got a really snazzy limo drive to L.A. That was an experience.

Kirk Bachmann: Forty-thousand applicants. Forty-thousand. Wow! Wow!

Daniela Peregrina: I’m not sure, but that was what was being told to us. Then we get to L.A. and they eliminated it down to forty. Forty people are the people who are on the show competing for the apron with our signature dishes, which in this case was my Chiles en Nogada. You have four judges. You have to get three yeses in order to get the apron. So I was very fortunate, and I am so honored that I got all four judges because I thought Joe was going to be the difficult one that would say no.

Interesting fact: Joe, when he found out that I was Serbian, in the show he goes, “Interesting.” Because his background, he’s Slovenian, I believe. Bastianich. I can’t remember if it is Slovenia or Croatia, but they are all very close to each other. We started talking in Serbian, which was amazing because I got to talk to Aaron in Spanish and Joe in Serbian. Of course, Christine Ha was one of my judges, and for those of you who don’t know, she’s the winner of Season Three. She’s blind. She won the competition. When I saw her come out, I was completely overwhelmed because she was the one that I told Rick, my fiance, I said, “If she can doit, I can do it.”

Kirk Bachmann: I can do it.

Daniela Peregrina: I can do it. Because I kept saying, “No, I can’t do this. I can’t do this.” The forty of us were there, and only twenty of us got an apron. The twenty of us were divided into four teams. Of course, you have the Boomers. The Boomers were amazing. Then you have Gen X. Then you have Millennials and Gen Zers. It was an interesting dynamic to see how everyone responds to different challenges.

They threw a lot of shade to the Gen Zers and Millennials. “You can’t do anything without your phones.” I thought they were extraordinary. They did an amazing job.

Ramen for Gordon Ramsay

Kirk Bachmann: That’s great. That’s great. Are you allowed to talk about what Gordon Ramsay is really like?

Daniela Peregrina: I am.

Kirk Bachmann: You are.

Daniela Peregrina: That is one of the things that my NDA does not say I can’t say. Gordon Ramsay is extraordinary.

Kirk Bachmann: That’s amazing.

Daniela Peregrina: Watching him cook is like watching an artist paint. He has such finesse. The energy. Talking about energy. I love seeing the energy of people. The energy that he has is one of focus of love and respect. The way he holds his spoon. There’s so much love there. To have tried his sweet potato mash – I was a mess. I was crying.

Kirk Bachmann: You see this chef back here, Marco Pierre White. Gordon Ramsay worked for him. Yes. I’ve heard this before that anyone that’s come into contact with Gordon, Chef Gordon has just been phenomenal. We watched this clip. Let me see. It was the chicken-flavored ramen noodles. But the judges, they loved it, right? Walk me through that dish.

Daniela Peregrina: Spoiler alert: if anybody hasn’t watched it, that episode was Generation Boxes. Each of us had a generational box. The Boomers, when they lifted it, there was Wonder Bread, there was canned spinach, there was SPAM. Of course, it wasn’t SPAM; it was canned meat. They had different names on them. All the foods of our generation. So when Gen X opened the box, we were shocked. We were mortified. There was Gatorade and cheese puffs and instant Cup O’Noodles. You remember when those came out, how exciting it was that we could just pour water into a cup and have lunch?

Kirk Bachmann: We can’t tell anybody we tried that, okay. You and I can’t tell anybody.

Daniela Peregrina: No, we can’t. And there were selected proteins. We had a strip steak and a chicken breast and ground turkey. But there was a package of hot dogs as well. There were wine coolers and things like that. We had forty-five minutes to make an elevated dish. What do you make with all of this?

You know, even Chef Aron, he said, “The dish is kind of quirky, kind of like you.”

I said, “Well, thank you, Chef, that’s a compliment.” I embraced the quirkiness. I put the hot dogs into a food processor with some ginger, some lemongrass. I fried up some shallots and I made a meatball with those and the turkey. Then I sauteed that with a little bit of aromatics. I used some gochujang, and we didn’t have much produce, either. We had a limited pantry of produce. I got a broccoli head and sauteed that broccoli, made some broccoli noodles from the stalk. Then I made the broth. I started the broth right away. I created a broth that was infused with a lot of flavor, a lot of aromatics, and I just let it cook for thirty-five minutes. I let it simmer, and I said, “Okay, this broth is going to be the thing.” And poached an egg, and – Bob’s your uncle – I served Gordon Ramsay hot dogs and ramen, and he liked it.

Hitting the Reset Button

Kirk Bachmann: Daniela, how did this experience, the whole experience on MasterChef inspire you? I’m going to use the reset term again. Your life. Is this something you think about everyday? You did it. You did it. You accomplished it. How do you think about the rest of your life based on that experience? You can do anything.

Daniela Peregrina: Yes. A lot of people ask me, “What was the reset button about? Why was that so important?” Chef, hopefully I won’t cry. I promise I won’t cry.

Kirk Bachmann: You can cry. You can cry.

Daniela Peregrina: Two years prior to applying for MasterChef, I had a very difficult health journey – very challenging – which pretty much had me bed-ridden. I thought, like I say, I thought, “That’s it. I’m getting old. This is my life. I just have to accept it and make the best of it. I’ve lived a great life. I’ve traveled. I did great things, but it’s time for me to settle down and just get old.”

Kirk Bachmann: You had peace about what was happening in your life at that time.

Daniela Peregrina: Correct.

Kirk Bachmann: Okay.

Daniela Peregrina: At that time, it was eventually going to happen. Doctors have told me, “Eventually it’s going to happen where you are just going to have to settle down and not move around so much because it does affect your mobility when it gets bad.” I’ve been very blessed. Especially eating plant-based now helps so much. I’m going to become the poster child advocate screamer on the soap box. If you have any type of inflammatory – I’m not a doctor – but inflammatory issues, plant-based is the way to go. That helped me a lot also to do a reset.

MasterChef was the first reset. Escoffier was the second reset, moving forward. It really is tied into, “Let’s reboot the computer. It’s running slow. Let’s do it.” That’s what happened to me with MasterChef. I realized my mindset was really important as well. Every day going into competition was a reset. Chef Ramsay would tell us, “Tomorrow’s another day. Shake it off. Go to bed. Get some rest.” Then when we’d walk in the kitchen, he would say, “Today is a new day. Whatever happened before happened before. Let’s move forward. Today is a new day.” I kept adopting that reset philosophy. Every day is a reset. No matter what happened yesterday, today is a reset. You just touch that button when you wake up.

The Switch to Being Plant-Forward

Kirk Bachmann: I just love the self-awareness, knowing that you need to reboot. Knowing that it’s running slow; you need to reboot.

The plant-based journey is fascinating. We’re going to dive into that a little bit more, but you converted away from, let’s just say, protein- and dairy-heavy dishes of your childhood – of everyone’s childhood – into healthier plant-based options, which didn’t mean you had to move away from flavor, and from texture, and from color. Can you talk a little bit more about that transition? And then we’re going to jump into your studies, what you’re learning, and what’s next.

But tell us a little bit about when you ripped that bandage off and knew that you needed to do something. People moved to plant-based or different things in their lives for different reasons: advocacy for animals, health, preference. It’s really interesting. When you say that you’re plant-based, a really good friend of mine, Chad Sarno, who has a plant-based business in Austin, Texas, he always just talks about, “Eat more plants more often. Just eat more plants more often.” My friend, Farmer Lee Jones, in Ohio: “Eat more plants more often. Eat your veggies.” There’s no political agenda or anything like that, just eat more plants more often. Was it like that for you? Was it really hard to move away from the traditions of your childhood, the way you just knew how to cook?

Daniela Peregrina: That is a great question because a lot of people say, “How hard was it?” And it wasn’t hard at all.

Kirk Bachmann: It wasn’t hard at all.

Daniela Peregrina: It was amazing.

I came back from MasterChef, of course, having the most extraordinary pantry that you could ever imagine, every single protein, every single dairy thing. You name it, they had it, Chef.

Kirk Bachmann: I imagine.

Daniela Peregrina: It was like heaven. We worked with a lot of heavy ingredients. My eating while I was there wasn’t the healthiest, as well. When I got back, I had a doctor’s appointment, and my cholesterol was off the charts.

I said, “We can’t do this. I need to do something about this.”

“Well, you could do a lot of exercise. You can reduce meat, pork.”

I said, “Well, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do this right.” So cold turkey, we eliminated all four-legged creatures from our diet. Then the two-legged creatures came. We say we’re more plant-forward than vegan.

Kirk Bachmann: Yeah, great term.

Daniela Peregrina: Because we have chickens. The chicken’s going to lay the egg, and we’re going to eat the egg from the chicken. There are certain things that I still will have, especially because [when] traveling, it’s difficult to find anything besides a salad.

Kirk Bachmann: Better than it used to be, but still difficult.

Daniela Peregrina: It’s better. It’s better. I think that the main thing that I love about transitioning into plant-based is that now I act like a mad scientist. I stare at things in my oven. I’m looking because I’m trying to replicate the flavors. For example, a dish that we make that has feta cheese and cream; how can I make that using cashews? It’s almost like playing in the kitchen and building flavors.

I have three cabinets full of spices. I’m learning so much about the spices around the world. There’s one competitor, actually, that was on MasterChef with me, Jeet and she is the person – I have never met someone who has such a wonderful grasp of seasoning and texture. I’ll say, “How can I use cardamom in this?” because cardamom is a part of my repertoire, having grown up in a European and Mexican tradition. She’d help me along with that.

New vegetables. Actually, the people from MasterChef have been helping me during this journey. I have Kimberly, who is a fellow Gen Xer, and she is amazing in the garden. I’ll ask her, “Hey, how can I use this vegetable? How can I use this?” She’ll give me ideas.

It really is exciting to get to play with your food in a new way because it has opened up doors that I never thought were there.

Kirk Bachmann: I just love it. I love it. I love how excited you get about it.

I’m so relaxed here chatting with you. My legs are crossed. I’m kind of leaning back. I’m drinking my tea. This is so easy. I appreciate you, Daniela, so much.

Daniela Peregrina: Oh, thank you.

Learning at Escoffier – and from Kirk

Kirk Bachmann: Now you’re a student with us at Escoffier. You’re going to school asynchronously, for the most part, online. You’re in our plant-based program. You started to talk a little bit about why Escoffier was the right choice for you because of the online component, but feel free to share any other feedback about how going to school, how learning online, has supported your lifestyle. Supported the things that you want to be able to do every single day without having to go to a physical building. Has that been a big part of your enjoyment of the program?

Daniela Peregrina: Yes. I have to say, it has been one of the biggest blessings to be able to play in my kitchen like when I was a little girl. I might go into the kitchen and think I’m going to serve a hundred people. In my head, sometimes, my kitchen is a Michelin-star kitchen where I am serving a hundred people. I get to play kitchen in my kitchen and learn in the process.

First of all, even my fiance will say it. He goes, “I am so impressed at the support system there is from Day One. You are not left alone. ‘Hey, okay, sign up online. Here are your classes. Here you go.’”

The tutoring! The math, for example, which was very challenging for me. I’m not a math person, as everybody can probably tell. I’m more of a creative – all over the place. Math was difficult. The support system that I had during that time with tutors, with the chef instructors. I love the checklists. Starting off and going, “Okay, I unpacked my groceries.” Yes, I unpacked them, and labeled them with the little tape. Painters’ tape is now in my drawer. Everything in my fridge is labeled with painters’ tape with the date. If you’re a culinary student-

Kirk Bachmann: What color is your painters’ tape? Is it taupe?

Daniela Peregrina: It’s blue.

Kirk Bachmann: It’s blue! Good.

Daniela Peregrina: And purple. I need purple.

Kirk Bachmann: I like that you have some color. I have to challenge you, here. I’ll be the chef and you be the student for a minute. Are you using scissors to cut your tape, or are you tearing your tape?

Daniela Peregrina: I’m tearing my tape, Chef.

Kirk Bachmann: You’re going to start using scissors to cut your tape.

Daniela Peregrina: Yes, Chef.

Kirk Bachmann: Okay. Yeah, look it up. Thomas Keller, Chef Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in California. I hand out scissors with the tape dispensers to all the chefs and all the students. Use the scissors. And you know why? It’s not because of my desire to control the narrative. It’s more about, if we can ask a student or a cook or a chef or an instructor to take the time to use scissors to work at ninety-degrees, then we’ll know that they’ll do almost anything to be the best. It’s that extra step to be better than just tearing it.

Daniela Peregrina: Thank you, Chef.

Kirk Bachmann: I didn’t invent it. I didn’t invent it. I just love it. I just love ninety-degree angles. Anyway, you’ll tell me about it later. Use the scissors.

Daniela Peregrina: I love it. I think I’m going to be making – check out my social media because I probably will be making a post.

Becoming a Baker

Kirk Bachmann: There you go. There you go. Ninety-degrees. Check out Thomas Keller, and you’ll have some context around that.

You’ve talked a lot about the people that you’ve interacted with, from your childhood, to being a teacher, to being on MasterChef, and Kim and some of the others that you still communicate with. Would you say, too, that going to culinary school, for example, has also provided you with this sense of community that seems to be very, very important to you in your life?

Daniela Peregrina: Yes, Chef. That was one of the things that I thought was going to be a challenge being online on a Zoom, but I have actually been very blessed. I have a small little community of two other women who are in the plant-based program with me. We have this back-and-forth Marco Polo that we talk about. We’ll go on Zoom and we’ll cook together. My little community of three [says,] “Hey, you know, my cake fell apart, or this happened, or my pie crust didn’t work. Can you help me?” So we’re helping each other.

Also, we have the support of the chefs. I was super, super nervous about baking. I am not a baker. I am not a baker. It’s so boxed and almost – well, not almost – it is very precise.

Kirk Bachmann: It’s a science. Yes.

Daniela Peregrina: It’s a science. I’m a creative, but I have learned to love baking. I’ve actually baked on my own outside of assignments. I created a recipe the other day. I said, “Babe! I’m a baker!” It’s thanks to Chef Stephanie who has been wonderful. All the chefs that I’ve had, they are extraordinary, always available for chatting. You can text them. You can email them. You can message them.

The demos, being online. It feels like the best of culinary school, but it is zapped to my lifestyle. Especially, for example, if I have a tough day where I can’t get out of bed, and I can’t function, and I can’t move, I can still be in class regardless. Then do my labs later on. I love putting the coat on and putting the apron on and my little hat.

Kirk Bachmann: I love that.

Daniela Peregrina: It lights me up. It really does light me up.

Kirk Bachmann: Coming back to your adopting or adapting to baking, you have a love for the kitchen. It is a little more linear. It is a little bit more precise than the creativity behind the stove. I’m the fourth generation son of a baker, and I went the creative route, too. He was on one side of the stove, I was on the other. I will say, if you embrace this idea of cutting the tape with scissors, then you can embrace the idea of mise en place in the world of a baker, where you always have to work ahead. You always have to be thinking ahead. Rarely can you throw together a wedding cake or a Dobos torte, or a Black Forest torte just at a moment’s notice. You have to think about it and prepare several components of your dish.

You had mentioned that you had made something, showed it to your fiance, and said, “I’m a baker.” What was it that you made?

Daniela Peregrina: I made banana bread.

Kirk Bachmann: Banana bread! Who doesn’t love banana bread? Right.

Daniela Peregrina: And you know what, it wasn’t that dense, almost moist type banana bread that I grew up with – which is delicious! It was light and fluffy and airy and crumby. I’m talking like a chef now.

Kirk Bachmann: I love it. I love it.

Daniela Peregrina: But the interesting part was that what I’ve learned is the proportions and how I can just substitute. Now, even further, that it’s plant-based. Substituting the egg for some flax meal, or a flax egg, or a chia egg, whatever it is. Like I said, it’s like playing for me and doing that, and when I pulled that banana bread out, it was like I had painted the Mona Lisa. I was so proud of that.

Daniela’s Ruler

Kirk Bachmann: I bet! I bet, and the aroma. But now you’re finding your culinary and baking voice, so you’re creating this cognitive narrative about what you’re doing. The idea that you’re thinking about replacing ingredients in a recipe as part of a technique is absolutely fabulous. Good. You’re growing as a culinarian.

We’ve talked about you doing a lot of things later in life. There are a lot of people out there on the fence about switching careers at a certain point in their lives. They may say it’s too late. “I don’t have the right resources.” Whatever it is. How do you – how did you – combat those fears, and how do you continue to combat those fears as you move forward? Eventually, you’ll finish school and then you’ll be faced with your next decision, whether it is the Three Aprons Cafe or a chain of restaurants, whatever it is. How do you combat those fears as you look at post-graduation?

Daniela Peregrina: So the fears will always be there. “Am I just wasting my time, my money, my energy, and I’m not going to do anything with it?”

One of the things that helps me combat it and that I share with a lot of people is the tape measure. I have a tape measure that I have marked at my age. I do it on the centimeter side. Let’s say if I were to live a hundred centimeters, a hundred years, I cut it right there. Where am I at right now? I’m at fifty-three, and I started doing this at fifty-one. I can cut all of that off. All I have is this little piece, which is forty-seven years left, if I live to a hundred. But how many viable years do I have? Well, the average female has approximately seventy years of viability, so that even cuts it to less.

So what am I going to do with that little piece of amazing, crazy opportunity that I have left? That combat’s my fears.

Kirk Bachmann: Oh my God, it’s brilliant. What a beautiful visual of just eliminating the noise to the left, to the right, to the north, to the south, and just focusing on where you are at this moment in your life.

Daniela Peregrina: Yes. To focus and show up for this. How am I going to show up for each of these millimeters? And I have to show up for me. Not for anybody else, but I have to show up for me.

Daniela Peregrina’s Ultimate Dish

Kirk Bachmann: Yes. You do. Daniela, I’m totally stealing. I’m stealing all of that because it’s just beautiful.

I’ve just noticed that we’ve been talking well over our time, and it’s just been so enjoyable, but I can’t let you go just yet. The name of the podcast is The Ultimate Dish. This has just been a joy. I can’t let you leave until you tell us what, in your mind, is the ultimate dish? Now, this could be a dish, several courses. It could be a memory, a food memory, but it’s one-hundred percent up to you. What’s the ultimate dish in Daniela’s world?

Daniela Peregrina: So the ultimate dish that I enjoy, that I wish I could have, would be my grandmother’s soft cabbage rolls that she had made with cabbage that she had brined for several months, and then would roll it and cook it for hours. That would be my ultimate dish.

Kirk Bachmann: Coming from a German background, stuffed cabbage rolls were a big thing in our family. How did your grandmother – did she steam them? And then did she accompany them with any sort of a sauce or reduction of some sort?

Daniela Peregrina: It would be made with smoked meats that my grandfather would smoke. It was placed in a, like I said, it is sauerkraut cabbage, actually the leaves that would be used. It was stuffed with a combination of smoked meat, ground meat, rice. Very simple, very home.

Kirk Bachmann: Into a casserole.

Daniela Peregrina: Into a big casserole and then in the oven for several hours.

Kirk Bachmann: I love it. I love it.

Daniela Peregrina: Slowly. It would have this flavor of smoked paprika, smoked meat. I mean, my mouth is watering right now thinking about it. And my sister actually makes it just like she did. I said, “You’ve got Baba’s hands, and you are the only one able to make this the way she made it.” So my younger sister, she’s phenomenal.

Kirk Bachmann: That is an amazing ultimate dish. It brings back a lot of memories. I was getting chills hearing you talk about it. Every once in a while, my mom would throw a tomato sauce of some sort underneath it just to change it up, but mostly it came out of the casserole in its own liquid. Great memory.

What a lovely chat, Daniela! Thank you so much. I wish you continued success in school. Please reach out whenever you can for help or otherwise, or just to tell me how it’s going. This coming Sunday, in a few days, we will have graduation for Escoffier for both online and on-ground students. We do it right here in Boulder, Colorado, on the campus of Colorado University in a beautiful venue. You will be here for graduation.

Daniela Peregrina: I will.

Kirk Bachmann: Next November.

Daniela Peregrina: July first, actually, is my graduation day.

Kirk Bachmann: You’ll graduate July first and then we’ll have the ceremony just a couple months later. It may be October, it may be November; it all depends on when the venue’s available. I look forward to seeing you walk across the stage.

Daniela Peregrina: I told Rick that toque blanche is going to stay on me for a week. You’re going to see me walk around with it.

Kirk Bachmann: Let’s go.

Daniela Peregrina: I earned that baby!

Kirk Bachmann: Yes, you did. You earned it.

Daniela Peregrina: Thank you, Chef Kirk. Thank you, Noelle. Thank you.

Kirk Bachmann: Thank you so much.

Daniela Peregrina: I am so honored that you would ask me to be on your amazing podcast. You’ve made this woman’s day. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Kirk Bachmann: The honor is ours. Thank you, Daniela. We appreciate you.

And thank you for listening to the Ultimate Dish podcast, brought to you by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. Visit escoffier.edu/podcast, where you’ll find any materials mentioned during the podcast, including notes, links and other resources. And if you can, please leave us a rating on Apple or Spotify, and subscribe to support our show. This helps us to reach more aspiring individuals ready to take the next step toward their dream careers. Thanks for listening.