The Truth About Lauren Lawless From Hell's Kitchen Season 19

Friends of profanity-laden reality cooking shows, rejoice! Hell's Kitchen is back with a brand new season 19, which means that Gordon Ramsay has finally been able to flex his insult muscles and shove his more affable qualities in the closet. The world is waiting to see who enters the esteemed ranks of winners, and the stakes are higher than ever — after all, the particularly prestigious prize for winning the season comes in the form of a head chef gig at Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen-themed restaurant in Lake Tahoe. 

Of course, a show like Hell's Kitchen never runs solely on "Who's going to win?" juice. Viewers are eager to get to know the new batch of contestants, not only to find out which ones of them are mouth-wateringly talented, but also to see which doomed souls end up producing some of the worst dishes to ever come out of Hell's Kitchen – and, with them, the appropriately furious reactions from Chef Ramsay. Let's find out which category Red Team member Lauren from San Diego, CA. is likely to be in. Here's the truth about Lauren Lawless from Hell's Kitchen season 19.

"Inspiring the world one plate at a time" proclaims the website of Lauren Lawless' ambitiously named Flawless Cuisine. The San Diego-area company, which Chef Lawless founded in 2018, is a catering and multi-faceted food industry enterprise that offers customized experiences like private tastings, live cooking demonstrations (don't worry, the guests get to eat the food afterwards), and on-site classes. The company also has its own, bright pink food truck (viewed on Facebook) that features a giant image of the chef herself on the side, and offers a vast variety of inspired street food from different cultures. 

Yep, Lawless is not just some random fry cook who happened to take a wrong turn and found herself in the audition. In fact, she's already at the cookbook-writing stage of her career, as evidenced by the aptly titled Lauren Lawless' Flawless Cuisine: Inspiring the World One Plate at a Time. What's more, there's a reason fans of cuisine-themed television might find her strangely familiar, because it turns out Hell's Kitchen is far from her first rodeo. 

Lawless has done all sorts of things in her life, and some of them may very well have brought her on your TV screen. In a 2020 interview with SD Voyager, she revealed that she has a pretty hefty résumé of media appearances. "I have also been featured in multiple magazines, newspapers, radio stations, and even other television shows such as Travel Channel, Tonight in San Diego, and recently just won Supermarket Stakeout on Food Network," she said. Watch out, other contestants — Hell's Kitchen season 19 has a cooking competition winner in its ranks! In fact, her MeetAChef profile mentions that she's also sat at the judges' table for multiple food festivals, so maybe Chef Ramsay should watch out, too.

What's more, Lawless revealed that she's already somewhat acquainted with Ramsay. She was among the 40 hopefuls fighting for the white apron on MasterChef season 8, an opportunity for which she quit her job. While a quick glance at the season's contestants reveals that she didn't make the cut to the final 20, this was still no mean feat when you consider there were around 34,000 hopefuls in total. 

Though Lawless' MasterChef dreams were soon crushed, she considered her performance a success, and has cited the experience as her inspiration to become a private chef. As a bonus, she did get to meet Ramsay, which probably won't hurt her Hell's Kitchen path. 

Being a self-taught female chef who rather explicitly enjoys the color pink, Lawless has sometimes struggled to establish herself in the industry, but her tenacity and willingness to learn and experiment have ultimately been a winning combination. She's the type of chef who's fine with all sorts of ingredients — up to and including bugs and eyeballs — and is familiar with cuisines all over the world, though she considers Asian food her greatest strength. 

As such, Lawless has been able to make a name for herself, despite adversities. "People sometimes look at my appearance and think one thing but what they don't know is that I never back down or stop fighting," she told SD Voyager. "After years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, I can finally say I'm where I want to be in my career." 

It remains to be seen whether the skill set she's developed over the years is enough to dominate Hell's Kitchen and elevate her career even higher. It certainly sounds like she's going to give it her all.