Bonnie Okane

My signature dish is chicken cutlet saltimbocca with a Baltimore peach burrata arugula salad and for of course a carb smashed sweet potato rounds. It is my husband and daughters favorite meal which in my house is basically a Michelin star. I frankly don't have many "signatures" because I try to keep a very versatile cooking portfolio as I have found my cooking evolves best that way. However this is the meal that always finds its way back to my table!

My inspirations are a mix of professional chefs and the strong Southern women of my Urbanna VA youth. My earliest food memories were on Sundays after long Baptist sermons, watching Aunt Mable and Grandma Maggie fry fish and chicken, shuck oysters, and cook with love while I battered before I could even reach the stove. They taught me that food was about bringing people together and the feeling of belong through taste. Professionally Julia Child and Michael Symon are my biggest inspirations.

I would use the 25k to get certifications in food safety and nutrition so I could start a free program to teach families how to cook healthy, comforting meals on a budget. My father was a pastor who operated a food bank and while giving the material is great id like to go a step further and actually show people how to work with what they can get. As someone who is now blessed but at one point was cleaning homes by day and offices at night to make a mortgage I know what its like to make it work!