Claudette Zepeda is the Executive Chef of EI Jardin, a modern Mexican restaurant opening in 2018. The article explores everything about Chef’s net worth, family members, and husband.
Claudette is a powerhouse matriarch and culinary creative born in 1985, and presently serving as a food and beverage consultant. Zepeda is known for her fearless culinary style and bold approach to regional Mexican cuisine.
Recently Claudette is one of the contestants competing as a challenger in a spin-off of the popular cookery show Iron Chef, which premiered on June 15, 2022.
Claudette Zepeda Net Worth
Till now Zepeda has accumulated a net worth of $750 thousand.
Being a single mother for so long, it was obviously not an easy journey to accumulate this amount of money.
After doing multiple shows, she was able to open a restaurant. From wandering for jobs to being able to give employment to others, she has come a really long way.
She was enrolled in culinary school but couldn’t afford the tuition fees so she was forced to drop out after a year. At the age of 15, she had been kicked out of her house and became a teen mother at the age of 18.
Fortunately, the young mother was being offered a job in a San Diego Italian Restaurant, by Denisa Roa, currently executive chef of Rancho La Puerta in Tecate. And her professional cooking career began.
She earned a job as the pastry chef at El Bizcocho where her boss Gavin Kaysen became her mentor, friend, and supporter. After El Bizcocho she went to Jsix Restaurant and expanded her expertise into breadmaking, charcuterie, and animal butchery.
After she joined San Diego’s restaurant, El Jardin, she ran her own kitchen by giving employment and staking her reputation. She is also working as Consulting Chef of VAGA located in San Diego.
In 2019, The Chef founded Viva La Vida, LLC, establishing a micro-business with single mothers.
Claudette Zepeda Family and Relationship Status Explored
Claudette Zepeda was born on August 17, 1985, to Mexican parents and raised in Imperial Beach. She was raised between Tijuana and San Diego. Her parents used to have a small restaurant as a business.
Her mom and grandmom were also superb cooks. According to Zepeda, her family was not financially strong.
She tied her knots to Jeremy Wilkins, a marine veteran, in 2010. She was a single mother to James for a long time who now turned 18 years old. She also had a daughter named Hailey.
Claudette Zepeda Achievements
In 2018, Claudette was named both Eater San Diego and San Diego Union Tribune’s Chef of the year.
In 2019, she was a James Beard Best Chef West Semifinalist.
Prior to El Jardin, she was Chef de cuisine at Javier Plascencia’s celebrated Bracero and competed on Top Chef Season 15 and Top Chef Mexico Season 2.
She has garnered national acclaim for her time as the executive chef, and partner behind El Jardin, a Mexican Restaurant in the area, and also got recognition as the Esquire’s 2018 New Best Restaurant from Michelin on the 2019 Bib Gourmand list.