Winner will appear in Taste of Home magazine, cook with Carla Hall, and take home $25,000
I cook simple, delicious, seasonal food that I can teach you to make at home. With simple chef’s tips I can make you cook like a pro.
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One dish is hard to nail down as every season has its special offerings. Spring: Tarragon roasted halibut, grilled spring raabs, bagna cauda. Summer: Corn soup with butter, salt and black pepper. Fall: Crispy skin salmon with succotash of corn, peppers, shell beans and chanterelles. Winter: Cassoulet - fresh garlic and parsley sausage, duck confit, braised lamb, tarbais beans, breadcrumbs. Dessert: Noyaux panna cotta with fresh peaches.
Who is your culinary inspiration?My great grand mother, my grandmothers, my mother and then Alice Waters. I'm still amazed at the ability to be so simple with ingredients but with so much attention to them that dishes that are so perfect and present the ingredients in the light that they and their farmers deserve. The farm to table, knowing your farmers and ranchers and knowing where your vegetables and animals come from is important to everything up until the diner plate is in front of you.
What would you do with the $25,000?I am trying to build an outdoor covered area for my grilling and bbq-ing area so that I have a year round outdoor kitchen. A real off-set smoker to help improve my bbq game. An indoor hood system and a new oven/range unit in my house. And a new standup freezer. Maybe a small vacation with a fancy tasting menu but that's just a wish list extra.
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