Winner will appear in Taste of Home magazine, cook with Carla Hall, and take home $25,000
Mechanical engineer, mom of 2, 8 weeks postpartum & in culinary school—bringing Greco-Turkish & Middle Eastern flavors to brunch.
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A deeply savory brunch pie where my Sicilian-French roots met my husband’s Greco-Turkish table — flaky spanakopita-inspired puff pastry layered with smoky beef bacon, feta, dark greens, silk yolk, and bright tomato. This dish inspired me to really pursue culinary school and stop pushing it off.
Who is your culinary inspiration?During maternity leave, I fell in love with the philosophy behind Mediterranean cooking through the work of Diane Kochilas and Yotam Ottolenghi — that food could be layered with memory, migration, nourishment, and longevity. One dish became my families favorite: a spanakopita-shakshuka inspired brunch pie with flaky puff pastry, smoky beef bacon, dark greens, feta, tomato, and fried egg. It reminded me that Mediterranean cuisine was never “simple peasant food” in the dismissive
What would you do with the $25,000?$25,000 would help me transition from engineering and project management into food thoughtfully and sustainably. I’d use it for culinary school at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, travel to experience Mediterranean food culture firsthand, and hopefully take a cooking course with Diane Kochilas in Greece. I’d also build a small test kitchen for pop-ups and farmers markets before fully leaving corporate life for food.
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