Luna Contreras has spent most of her career working at several restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to her LinkedIn profile. Luna worked as a sous chef at Fonda in the San Francisco Bay Area after completing a one-year internship at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.
She joined Mexico DF as a co-executive chef after a three-year tenure at Fonda. Luna became an executive chef at Mamacita restaurant in 2009, and she quickly rose to prominence in the culinary world. Luna’s ability was also highly valued at Padrecito, a restaurant where she worked after Mamacita. Luna began working at Nightingale in Portland in 2020 but quit after eight months. She subsequently opted to become the executive chef at Chelo, a well-known Portland restaurant. Luna also serves on the board of directors of Family Meal, a non-profit organization.
Luna’s bio on the Family Meal website reads:
“Luna has spent much of her life battling to accept and embrace her actual identity. After a lengthy fight with gender dysphoria, she ultimately decided to begin hormone replacement treatment. This continuing journey has reaffirmed my commitment to being modest, honest, and genuine.”
According to her Instagram, she enjoys expressing her opinions in long postings. In one of her most recent postings, she expressed gratitude to Snack vs. Chef for providing her with a platform “a wonderful experience.” She went on to say that the program helped her make new friends and gave her the courage to try new things. While Luna has touched many hearts with her compassion and culinary ability in Portland, she is now preparing to do so again by competing in the Netflix cooking show, Snack vs. Chef.
