Grace Ramirez was born in Miami, and spent most of her adult years in New York. She worked as a producer and director at Nickelodeon, MTV, then the Food Network. She gave up her job in television when she was selected from over 60,000 people to be on "MasterChe""f USA." Shortly after, she was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious French Culinary Institute in NYC." "She has since relocated to New Zealand.