At the age of 22, LaLa was on the verge of stardom. As a former member of Pares y Nones, a five-girl group that opened for the Latin boy band, Menudo, she had just struck out on her own and was close to signing a record deal.  “It was going really well,” recalls the Los Angeles native, “I sang solo in front of 75,000 people as part of a music festival at the Houston Astrodome. We were shopping record labels. Mentally and physically, I was in a great place.” She was poised for a major breakthrough to live out her dreams. That was until a fateful accident sent her life careening down a very different path.

LaLa had been a passenger in a car that was broadsided by another vehicle, and the injuries she sustained were devastating. For many months she lost the use of her left leg, and to this day, she receives occasional therapy.

Unable to adhere to her strict gym regimen, her svelte figure quickly gave way to a rounder silhouette, leaving her depressed and deflated. Worst of all, she was physically incapable of performing on stage and had to abandon her promising career.   “I came to the realization with that accident that you’re only as good as your health,”she says. “When your body tells you that you can’t do something you were just able to do last week, your ego takes a blow.”

Such trauma would rightfully have broken anyone’s spirits. And LaLa certainly struggled with her emotions and the realization that her life had been forever altered. But the ebullient, petite powerhouse has never been one to simply accept to the words “no,” “never”or “can’t.” When the door to her singing career slammed shut, she ran for the windows that opened in its place and decided instead to devote herself to another of her life’s passions: food. Today, “Chef LaLa”, as she is widely known, is every bit the sensation she was destined to be, but with a life much fuller, richer and  more meaningful than even she could have imagined.

A third-generation restaurateur and daughter of Mexican immigrants, LaLa grew up in the kitchens of her family’s California-based eateries and inherited her father’s talents at the stove. Before following in his footsteps, she briefly studied to become a cardio-pulmonary therapist, but quickly realized it wasn’t the right career for her.

Still, LaLa’s interest in health was never far from mind, even as she enrolled in the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu and went on to found her own catering company, Savor! Caterers, serving A-List Celebrities, VIPs in entertainment and politics, including two U.S. Presidents and a President of Mexico, Vicente Fox.

Two forces in LaLa’s life profoundly influenced her thoughts about food and her career: One was her constant battle with her weight. The other was her family’s history of diabetes, the complications of which claimed the lives of both of her grandmothers and one of her grandfathers. Looking for ways to make cuisine more healthful, she has continually taken courses to improve her nutritional knowledge and is certified as a specialist in fitness nutrition, kids’ nutrition, and lifestyle and weight management.

The idea that any ethnic cuisine or any cuisine, really can be good for you and still retain its sabor, or flavor, has become her mantra and her practice as a celebrity chef and author, and also as a spokeswoman for organizations including the American Diabetes Association. “People pay better attention to the gas they put into their cars than the foods they put into their bodies,”she says. “In the meantime, heart disease which is largely preventable remains the number one killer in America. If that’s not enough to scare anyone straight, I don’t know what is.”

As a serious car buff and crackerjack mechanic, LaLa frequently uses automobiles as an analogy for the human body. She’s a self-professed lipstick tomboy who can maneuver a torque wrench as easily as a paring knife.

Being a working mom, LaLa has encountered a whole new set of challenges and pleasures in her life. Like many new mothers, she struggled to take off the baby weight and has realized the importance of slowing down, as she says,  “to smell the roses, or the steak, or the top of my baby’s head.”  Yet she remains tireless in her public efforts to promote healthful foods that are anything but bland. LaLa knows the challenges women face. As a result, she is able to motivate and inspire her audience in a personal to accept their bodies and try their best everyday, to live a healthy life.

She recently received Macy’s “Community Star Award”, as well as General Mills “Corazón de Comunidad,” (literally, “Heart of the Community.”) And California’s First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Diaz into the state¹s Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

The one constant through it all, she says, has been her family, her two sisters, Myrna and Veronica; her brother, Danny; and her parents, Luis and Raquel, who have been married for more than 40 years. “They’ve always been cheering me on, no matter what. I wish someday to be half the chef that my father is.” When asked whether she hasn’t already surpassed him, she arches an eyebrow and a gleam appears in her eye that generally precedes her frequent quips. “Obviously, you haven’t tried his carnitas.”

Whether she’s teaching nutritious cooking at a Farmer’s Market or on a television show, LaLa is on fire with her desire to share everything she has learned to make people’s lives healthier and happier–one meal at a time.

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