“They told me that I had talent and ability. They made me believe in myself.”
Since the early age of 8, Lay had a knack for cooking. If she wasn’t in the kitchen at home, she was there in her after-school culinary arts program. When New York City’s middle schoolers determine which public high schools to attend, she learned about Manhattan’s Food & Finance High School.
As a first-year student, she learned basic knife skills and kitchen rules and was introduced to the youth-focused chef training program, Careers Through Culinary Arts (C-CAP). “My chef-instructor [at Food & Finance] told me when I picked up a knife that I had an innate ability to just cook and I had an ability to get into college from that,” she said.
Lay earned scholarship funding through C-CAP competitions and attended Monroe University’s School of Hospitality Management in New Rochelle, New York. She completed her studies in three years, graduating from Monroe in 2016 with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a focus in Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management.
Chef Lay credits C-CAP founder and chairman Richard Grausman and Monroe University dean Frank Costantino, who coached her for competitions and instilled professionalism, respectively, for their mentorship.
At Morimoto, Chef Lay learned the rigor of a trendy, celebrity chef-driven restaurant. Within a year, she worked her way up the line, from garde manger to the grill station.
On “Undercover Boss,” Chef Lay was pitched a teaching competition opportunity at her alma mater, Monroe. She taught a class with Marcus Samuelsson, who was disguised as a boss shadowing her. Marcus offered her a job at his London Red Rooster opening and his Stockholm restaurant, Kitchen & Table, along with a $25,000 prize.
After three months in Europe, Chef Lay returned to the U.S. and became Sous Chef at Red Rooster Harlem. Eventually, she followed corporate chef Leonardo Marino to Beatstro.
After that, Chef Lay joined the Institute of Culinary Education’s Los Angeles campus in October 2019, where she enjoyed sharing her seafood knowledge with Culinary Arts students. Today, she’s the Chef and Owner at SoulandWheel where her teaching extends beyond practical applications, focusing on inspiration and mentorship.
