Cooking is everything for Lorenzo Beronilla.

He says he grew up in the kitchen, his family propping him up on the counter, letting him watch as they prepared meals. He may not be a Michelin star chef, but he’s become a food influencer. His Youtube videos, which feature him competing against professional chefs, have gained millions of views. He's even won an episode of "Top Chef."

“[After winning] I asked for everybody's address," Beronilla said. "I was going to send them a thank you card, I'm telling you, cameraman to boom guy. I just said, 'What's your name? And thank you. Thank you.'”

So when he started to feel sick and weak, disrupting his ability to appear on camera, he knew it was time to go to the hospital.

“And I'm still thinking, 'my gosh, I got stuff to do, you know?" he said. "I have an audition I have to turn in. I'm not…' You don't think the worst.”

His diagnosis came as a complete shock - he was experiencing heart failure. 

“I got dropped off here, right there," he said, pointing to the front of HealthAlliance Hospital. "And I couldn't walk in because I was in so much pain. They had to call a wheelchair for me.”

Doctors had to find a heart for him and perform a transplant.

“When he's already under sedation, the breathing tube is in, he's asleep. Then the surgeon sews in the heart and it's a miracle to see the heart suddenly come back and start to beat where they're putting everything back together," said Dr. Gregg Lanier, the Westchester Medical Center doctor who served as Lorenzo's heart failure cardiologist.

Months later, Beronilla is back doing what he loves. He's cooking, sometimes indulging and delivering a simple message – follow your heart when it comes to your passions and health.

“The doctors and nurses, the entire staff, I know they do this for a living," he said. "This is what they do. But I want them to know that it doesn't go unnoticed. I'm very grateful to be under their care.”