Diana Lennox

What is your signature dish?

Crabcakes. Yep crabcakes. Simple un embellished, four ingredient melt in your mouth, jumbo lump crab meat, crabcakes, served with a lemon, white wine, caper butter sauce. Luna get over here over here you stay here sit downOr, as a sandwich, on a lovely brioche roll served simply with mixed greens and a dollop of a wellshallot and caper Mayo. No plain tartar sauce allowed!

Who is your culinary inspiration?

Well, honestly, sadly to say, my mother and my grandmother are my greatest inspirations. Neither one of them could cook to save their lives so to me it was a matter of survival! My grandmother was an incredible baker and candy maker, but she could kill a really decent piece of meat. I loved them both dearly, but damn! They could not cook!

What would you do with the $25,000?

Out of necessity, I would probably need to use it for living expenses. I am retired as a cook/chef but don’t really want to be. Due to my age, I have been put out to the pasture and nobody will hire me. For 31 years, I spent most of my time in private golf or country clubs, but when the season ended for the winters, I always worked at one of the local restaurants in town or in the area. Idle is not me. My dream has been to have my own licensed kitchen to offer my best soups and desserts