Kitchen Nightmares: Where Katalina and Marcelo are now

Kitchen Nightmares’ Mojito has closed down, and Katalina and Marcelo have gone their separate ways.

Kitchen Nightmares has officially returned to the reality television-sphere. And many fans have found themselves wondering about what happened to the diners, cafés, bistros and other fine dining establishments (and the owners who almost ran them into the ground) who helped to make the first few seasons of this beloved show so very entertaining all those years ago.

This includes the partners, Katalina ‘Kata’ Velez and Marcelo Arias, whose constant bickering almost cost them their Brooklyn-based Cuban restaurant, Mojito.

Katalina and Marcelo way back when

Ramsay certainly had his work cut out for him when he arrived at Mojito. This Kitchen Nightmares intervention not only required a full restaurant revamp, but also a healthy dose of couples therapy in order to get things back up and running in time for the final service.

But that was over 10 years ago. And if you have tuned in to watch any of the bickering and overwhelmed owners on the most recent season of Kitchen Nightmares and have found yourself wondering what ever happened to Katalina, Marcelo, their struggling restaurant and their crumbling relationship, you may be surprised to learn that these former Mojito owners’ lives are nearly unrecognizable today.

What happened to Mojito?

However, before we can dive into what Mojito’s owners have been up to since Ramsay first walked through their door, we need to dive into what happened to the restaurant tying it all together.

It turns out that Ramsay’s Mojito intervention was actually one of the most effective makeovers ever to be completed on the show. So much so that the restaurant managed to stay open for about seven years after his initial visit.

All in all, Mojito’s full Kitchen Nightmares timeline can be summarized as follows:

Did Marcelo and Katalina end up getting back together?

You may have watched the original “Mojito” episode and thought that Katalina and Marcelo were destined to get back together once Ramsay had fixed all of the glaring issues at their restaurant, but this has not been the case.

Ramsay actually returned to Mojito in the season four “Revisited” episode, in which he also visited The Junction (formerly named Flamangos), and Bazzini.

Upon his return, Katalina and Marcelo happily informed Ramsay that their business had improved by around 30% since his first visit and that their inventory management had improved significantly, as well.

But even though things were much smoother sailing on the business side of Katalina and Marcelo’s relationship, they did confirm that they had decided to end their romantic relationship, permanently.

And it seems like they have since both moved on to find new partners.

What Marcelo has been up to since Mojito closed down

Marcelo has kept his personal life fairly private, since he had all of his dirty laundry with Katalina aired on national television, and the most recent post on his Facebook page dates back to almost five years ago.

However, the information that is available on this Facebook page does reveal that he possibly moved back to Colombia at some point after the restaurant closed down and that he no longer works in the restaurant industry.

Katalina has become a celebrity chef in her own right

While most of the owners who have had their restaurants rescued by Ramsay through the years have chosen to keep a fairly low profile after their episodes aired (just like Marcelo has) – Katalina has actually become quite the television star.

Katalina’s incredible knack for cooking authentic Cuban cuisine earned her the honor of becoming the ‘Best of Gastronomie’ Colombia cuisine ambassador in the United States in 2021, but she has also appeared on shows like Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen since her brief stint on Kitchen Nightmares.

One article from 2015 even went as far as coining her “the next Sofia Vergara of the culinary world!” Katalina is also very active on social media.

You can find updates about what Katalina is up to now, the projects she is working on, new recipes, and even updates about her personal life on Mojito’s former Facebook page as well as her personal YouTube channel, where she has shared clips of her television appearances and a few special recipes.