Not in her wildest imagination did Mollie Guerra BA’13 expect to be where she is today.

From learning to cook in a high school culinary program to appearing on two popular TV cooking shows to serving as chef for a national auto racing team (while also working in the pit crew), she has approached her culinary career at the speed of a race car.

After graduating from Richardson High School, Guerra wanted to continue her cooking endeavors 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. While in high school and at UTD, Guerra worked at several Dallas restaurants but couldn’t get 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 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 with a degree in business administration and organizational behavior, Guerra worked as an independent insurance agent. The job paid well, but she knew she wasn’t happy. Then she saw a casting call for the television cooking competition “MasterChef,” hosted by Gordon Ramsay.

“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.”

Guerra eventually found herself cooking for the show’s main judges in front of studio cameras in Los Angeles. She was eliminated after one round on TV, but the experience was life-changing. It reminded her of why she wanted to be a chef, especially after Ramsay tried her food and complimented her 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 job and started her Chef Mollie G business, which focused on chef-prepared meals and corporate catering. One client had her prepare regular lunches for his 60 insurance agency employees. Soon she could no longer keep up with the demand, so she rented a commercial kitchen and hired staff.

“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. My classes at UTD really gave me the baseline of knowledge and understanding that helped me realize that this is attainable for me.”

Mollie Guerra BA’13

“It went from zero to 100 mph very quickly,” she said.

In 2020 another client offered to let her manage a marina restaurant on Lake Texoma in Oklahoma on the weekends. Guerra said she couldn’t turn down the offer despite having to hire more staff while continuing her Dallas business.

Guerra has built a reputation for making nontraditional 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 spring 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,” said Guerra, who also appeared on the Food Network’s “Chopped” earlier this year.

In 2022 a Dallas-based auto racing team hired her to travel to races and cook for the drivers, pit crew, 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.

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

She has become so busy working with the racing team that she has paused her meal prep service. She still cooks for special events, but cooking for the team has allowed her to focus on being a traveling chef. Guerra wants to continue to travel, but she is also thinking about buying a commercial kitchen in Dallas to use for special events or to rent to other chefs.

She said her UTD education has played an important role in her success.

“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,” she said. “My classes at UTD really gave me the baseline of knowledge and understanding that helped me realize that this is attainable for me.”