A Dream Realized, Chef Mollie Races On

When asked if she ever expected to be where she is today, Mollie Guerra BA’13 says not in her wildest imagination. From learning to cook in a high school culinary program to appearing on two popular cooking shows to serving as chef for a national auto racing team (while also working in the pit crew), Guerra has approached her culinary career at the speed of a race car.

Following completion of a culinary program at Richardson High School and graduating in 2010, Guerra wanted to immediately continue training at a top school. Her family encouraged her to get a traditional college degree first – which led her to The University of Texas at Dallas. In high school and at the University, Guerra worked at several Dallas restaurants but couldn’t land a job in the kitchen.

“That’s when I got discouraged. I remember going to four different restaurants, and each of them basically told me that they did not need – in any way, shape or form – a version of me in their kitchen,” Guerra said. “I was good for front of house (as a host) or as a waitress, but the kitchen was still very much a man’s world. I became very complacent and just gave up.”

After graduating from UT Dallas with a degree in business in 2013 and briefly starting the MBA program, Guerra began working as an independent insurance agent for high net-worth clients. The job paid well and made it possible for Guerra to buy a home, but she knew she wasn’t happy. Then she saw a casting call for the television cooking competition “MasterChef.”

“The ad said just show up at this hotel in Dallas, bring some food and try out for the show,” she said. “There were dozens of people and judges walking around tasting their food and asking questions. I couldn’t believe it, but I kept getting pulled to the next round.”

The show’s producers invited Guerra to fly to Los Angeles to continue to compete against other chefs for a spot on the show hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. She survived an initial behind-the-scenes cut of 80 chefs down to 40 and then, suddenly, found herself cooking for the show’s main judges in front of studio cameras.

Guerra was cut from the show after one round on TV, but the experience was life changing. Cooking for the judges reminded her why she wanted to be a chef – especially after Ramsay tried her food and complimented her obvious passion in the kitchen.

“He told me to never give up on my dream,” she said. “I realized that this is what I’m supposed to be doing. It lit a fire under me.”

When Guerra returned home, she quit her insurance job, sold her house and started her Chef Mollie G business. The decision meant long, exhausting hours and taking on numerous part-time jobs to make ends meet.

Guerra started her business focused on chef-prepared meals and corporate catering. She landed a client who had her prepare regular lunches for his 60 insurance agency employees, and soon she could no longer keep up with the demand until she rented a commercial kitchen and hired staff.

“It went from zero to 100 miles per hour very quickly,” she said.

In 2020, a catering client who owned a marina on Lake Texoma in Oklahoma offered to let her manage the marina restaurant on weekends. Guerra said she couldn’t turn down the offer despite having to hire more staff while continuing meal prep and catering in Dallas. Soon she had 10 employees and was driving two hours to Oklahoma to cook on weekends.

“It was worth it because when I gave up on being a chef, I lost that spark of joy and passion for life,” she said.

Guerra has built a reputation for making untraditional foods that cross regional lines. She said she takes pleasure in the unusual – such as her Mexican mole complemented with Asian flavors or her Filipino lumpia, or egg roll, that she combines with mole blanco.

“Many people like rules and cooking in very traditional ways, and some people get mad at you for trying crazy things,” Guerra said.

True to her own style, Guerra ran into a traditional cooking roadblock when she appeared on the cooking show “Chopped.” The show’s producers saw her Instagram posts and offered her a shot at competing on the hit Food Network show, which aired in May of this year. Guerra traveled to New York City and survived the first round – the appetizer – but was “chopped” during the entree round when she prepared a dish from the prescribed ingredients that one of the judges thought crossed a line for uniqueness.

“‘Nope, doesn’t make sense. These are not supposed to go together,’ is what he said when he tried it,” Guerra said. “The way I cook is like fighting preconceived notions, but that’s what I like to do.”

Always open to opportunities that show off her talent, Guerra was approached in 2022 by a Dallas-based auto racing team that needed a chef to travel to races and cook for drivers, pit crew members, the team owners and guests. The team races BMW cars in circuit races throughout the country, and Guerra quickly fell in love with the sport. In her first year with the team, she traveled to nine races.

“I have definitely built up a reputation on the paddock for my food, so now I also feed some of the series executives and BMW automotive engineers who attend races,” she said.

Guerra even helps the pit crew when she’s not preparing meals. Her job is to throw a switch on the fuel tank in the pit area, allowing the team’s cars to be refueled during pit stops.

“My job is called the ‘deadman,’ but I’m not sure why,” she said. “I think it has to do with the fuel tank.” 

Guerra has become so busy working with the race team that she’s paused her meal prep service. She still cooks for special events, but cooking for the race team has allowed Guerra to focus on traveling as a chef, which is one of her goals.

Now considering options for the next phase of her career, Guerra wants to continue to travel, but she’s also thinking about buying a commercial kitchen in Dallas that she would use for special events and to rent to other chefs.

Guerra said her business education at UT Dallas has played an important role in her success. After all, she is not only a culinary professional, but also a businessperson.

“I not only had to figure out how to be a professional who can produce food at a fine dining level, I had to simultaneously learn how to run a business,” Guerra said. “My classes at UTD really gave me the baseline of knowledge and understanding that helped me realize that this is attainable for me.”

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