Winner will appear in Taste of Home magazine, cook with Carla Hall, and take home $25,000
James Beard nominated Chef Melissa Donahue is a highly acclaimed executive chef restaurateur best known for her restaurant Sweet Melissa's
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My signature dish has to be our fish stew. pei mussels, littleneck clams, scallops, fish, gulf shrimp with shallots, garlic, fennel, chorizo in a tomato saffron broth topped with a pernod aioli
Who is your culinary inspiration?I would probably say chef Eric Ripert. Being on the gulf coast I tend to gravitate to seafood. However i was lucky enough to work for a Danny Meyer restaurant and then a for the Brennan’s in New Orleans where I learned how a kitchen should operate.
What would you do with the $25,000?Sweet Melissa’s Cafe was on Sanibel Island for 15 years. In 2023 the island was devastated by hurricane ian. The restaurant took on 9 feet of water and had to be demolished. We had big plans to rebuild but after some set backs and two more hurricanes the following year that flooded the island my investor decided not to rebuild. With some financial help I moved inland to Fort Myers. The $25,000 would go a far way in helping the new location thrive!
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