Dec 7th, Natalia Boa, Food Network Ciao House Winner

Natalia Boa, was born and raised in Puerto Rico. From her early stages of life she was exposed to the restaurant industry. She grew up in the Conquistador Hotel in Fajardo Puerto Rico, A Wyndham Collection Hotel. Her father became good friends with the hotel’s Executive Chef, whom had a daughter her same age, named Natasha. As a kid, she would hang out with Natasha (the executive chef daughter), they would tie people’s shoes underneath the long white table cloths at the fine dining restaurant.

She decided to attended university in Mexico. First she completed Le Gran Diplome from Le Cordon Bleu, where she graduate with 6 diplomas from cuisine and pastry lessons. Upon graduating, she continue to pursue her Bachelor Degree in Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management.

Soon after, she moved to Chicago where she worked for The Alinea Group, a Michelin star group under Grant Achatz. She was part of the menus of Next, World’s 50 best, French Nouvelle, French Classique, Alinea 2005-2010 and Silk & Spice, among others . She worked for the company for 5 years, where she rotated between the group’s restaurant, Alinea, Roister and Next. Natalia also worked on a collaborative cookbook with 50 of the best chefs of Mexico, on childhood memories dishes, money from the cookbook went to help cooks around Mexico facing financial challenges due to pandemic. She has also had appearances in Mexican TV outlets, promoting the consumption of mushrooms grown in the volcanoes. Natalia has also had appearances for Food Network streamed through HBO Max and Discovery Plus; she appears in season 1 of Chopped NextGen chefs and Beat Bobby Flay and the first international competition cooking show from Discovery Plus and Food Network, Ciao House; being the ultimate winner, and the first Puerto Rican to win such award.