But it hasn’t been easy. The food world is notoriously male-dominated and sexist. “Of course, I’ve experienced sexism,” she says. I remember when I was 16 I came to New York for a job at — I'm not going to say the restaurant. But the chef told me, ‘You know we don’t hire women.’ I got the job, but I was like, 'You know, forget you! I’m not moving here and getting paid nothing for you not to believe that women can do this job!'”

Fortunately, not many guys have tried to push Soto-Innes around. (She says she was running a cooking line of 40-year-old dudes when she was 16.) And with her unbeatable combo of talent, hard work, and genuine warmth — she greets every member of her kitchen with a hug in the morning — she hasn’t had much trouble making her way to the top of New York’s culinary scene.

But she says what really drives her — what drives anyone — is passion. “I’m always wanting to learn more and more and more, and with cooking, you never finish learning,” she says. “I think that’s true with all different careers. You have this little thing inside you that wants to keep going, and nothing can stop you.”