Chef Claudia Sandoval was making ends meet as a solo mom.

When a friend suggested, she auditioned for a new reality show, Master Chef.

Claudia went for it, even in the face of criticism from those she loves most, and she won.

But that is not even the most interesting part of her story.

What is really fascinating is what happened after.

She started a catering business and culinary consultancy.

She worked as a judge on Telemundo's master chef Latino and started to make

plans to open a brick and mortar eatery. Then the pandemic hit. And Claudia's big dream went from

just within reach to impossible. Claudia opens up about the toll that took on her mental health,

the opportunity to prove her proof of concept, and the meaning behind her new

Discovery Plus show, Taste of the Border.

Chef Claudia, thank you so much for doing this.

Of course.

Thanks so much for having me.

Growing up in San Diego, it was your mom and

your grandmother who were the cooks in your home. What was it that they were cooking?

Oh my gosh. Like she's just super traditional Mexican food, everything from, you know,

like beans and rice and all of that stuff to really, really more complex stuff that like

you don't even really see in San Diego, like asada Masathealeco. My family is originally from Massatlan in Sinaloa, so there was, like,

a lot of fresh seafood, a lot of soups, especially when it was hot, because that's like so, like,

the Latina thing to do, right? But yeah, lots of kind of very authentic traditional Mexican food, lots of tortilla

making, all of that. I want you to take me back to, I don't know if it's 2014 or 2015,

...