The Truth About Victoria Sonora From Hell's Kitchen: Young Guns Season 1
The premise of "Hell's Kitchen: Young Guns" is to gather aspiring chefs ages 24 and under for a chance to show off their skills. The fact that Victoria Sonora, along with five other chefs, is only 21 years old means that she's part of the youngest crop of competitors the show has ever seen.
"I don't want to sound super cocky, but there is a new generation coming and we're taking charge," Sonora says in a video highlighting all the new competitors (via YouTube). We see a couple of seconds of the cook in action, as she calmly responds to Ramsay's query about cooking times by saying her risotto only needs one more minute. No comeuppance for her cockiness.
Of course, young does not mean inexperienced. In 2018, Sonora was already profiled as a chef of the next generation by The Modern Eater, Colorado's hyperlocal food and drink site. At that time, she was part of the American Culinary Federation's apprenticeship program, serving her stint at the St. Julien Hotel & Spa in Boulder, Colorado. In the previous year, she had also won bronze at a competition hosted by the American Culinary Federation for a three-course meal featuring sunchokes, cherry tomatoes, chuck roast, a duck, and grapefruit. Even before "Hell's Kitchen," Sonora had set herself up for a successful career as a chef.
Sonora is still taking charge
While we will have to wait for the "Young Guns" season to begin on May 31 to see how well Victoria Sonora's background prepared her, we can see that she has done well since filming "Hell's Kitchen."
On her Instagram page, Sonora posts about the development of a new restaurant called Famille. A glance at the restaurant's website shows that the executive chef is Laurent Méchin whose most recent position was at the St. Julien Hotel & Spa. Presumably, Sonora had impressed Méchin enough for her to transition from one position to the next while continuing her learning.
The restaurant itself opened in Westminster, Colorado on March 24, according to 303 Magazine. It serves a blend of French sensibility and Coloradoan ingredients and flavors. As of writing, it boasts five stars and 13 reviews on Yelp, a fact you can take as you will. Whatever happened during "Hell's Kitchen: Young Guns," Sonora has certainly been charging along.