Carla Hall
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 Carla Hall at the Riverdale Park Farmers Market, Riverdale Park, Maryland, October 2009 |
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| Born | May 12, 1964 Nashville, Tennessee |
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| Education | L'Academie de Cuisine (Gaithersburg, MD), Howard University |
Carla Hall (born May 12, 1964) is an American chef residing in Washington, D.C. She was a finalist in the fifth and eighth seasons of Top Chef, Bravo's cooking competition show. On April 14, 2011, it was announced that Hall will be one of 5 cohosts on The Chew, a one-hour live show centered on food from all angles. The show premiered in September on ABC, replacing All My Children.
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[edit] Early life and education
Hall was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated from Howard University's Business School with a degree in accounting in 1986. After working for two years at Price Waterhouse and obtaining a CPA certificate, she shifted focus and spent several years working as a model in the runways of Paris, Milan and London. It was in the first of these three cities that she quickly fell in love with the art of food.[1]
[edit] Career prior to Top Chef
Upon returning to the United States, Carla moved to Washington, where she started a lunch delivery service called the Lunch Bunch. After working there for four years, she enrolled in L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Maryland, graduating with a Culinary Career Training certificate. From here, she went on to serve an internship at the Henley Park Hotel in 1996, where she was then promoted to sous chef. In the following years, she worked as the executive chef at the State Plaza, a sister hotel, and the Washington Club, a private social club. Then, in 2001, Hall started her own catering company, Alchemy Caterers, based in Silver Spring, Maryland.[1]
[edit] Top Chef
Hall's big break came in 2008, when she was selected to be a contestant on the fifth season of Top Chef. In the initial half of the show, she was in the middle in most episodes, but was in the top in the Thanksgiving challenge. After Episode 10, she wowed the judges with her crawfish gumbo, going on to win Super Bowl XLIII tickets for her victory. This win gave her the momentum she needed to push to the end, as after this, she won two more challenges and was in the top for several others. Most notably, she greatly impressed Jacques Pépin, who said he could "die happy" after eating her fresh peas,[2] and Emeril Lagasse, who said he loved her gumbo.[3] However, in the final challenge in New Orleans, she, as well as Stefan Richter, ended as runners-up, losing to Hosea Rosenberg.
On the show, Carla gained popularity for her personality, although she did not win Fan Favorite in her season. She became known for her call-and-response catch phrase "Hootie Hoo!", a tradition she and her husband had whenever trying to locate one another in public. Hall also became known on Top Chef for her philosophy of "cooking with love", which she defined as putting one's own care and warmth into food. She believes that if one is happy and calm while cooking, then this will show in the food, making it much better, whereas if one feels otherwise, it will degrade their cuisine. For this reason, she says that, “If you’re not in a good mood, the only thing you should make is a reservation."[1]
During the season seven finale of Top Chef, Carla was announced as part of the cast of Top Chef: All-Stars, the eighth season of the show which would consist of participants from past seasons. Throughout this season, she performed much stronger and more competitively-at one point leading the competition in number of Elimination wins-and making it again into the Finals. Most notably, she won the chance to demonstrate her recipe for chicken pot pie on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. However, she was eliminated in the first round of the Finals, after being plagued with equipment difficulties in both of her challenges. In her exit interview, she said, "The judges made the right decision. I didn't have a winning dish." She would appear twice more in the Finals, once as part of a Quickfire challenge and again as a sous-chef for season runner-up Mike Isabella. Finishing fifth overall in the competition, Carla was awarded "Fan Favorite" for the season by viewers of the show, beating out Season 5 fan favorite Fabio Viviani.
[edit] Career after Top Chef
Currently, Carla continues to work as the executive chef and owner of Alchemy by Carla Hall (formerly Alchemy Caterers), specializing in petite and savory cookies. She appeared on the May 3, 2009 cover of the Washington Post Magazine, on a feature called "Fit for Fame", about still exercising while being famous. On April 14, 2011, it was announced that Hall will be one of 5 cohosts on The Chew, a one-hour live show centered on food from all angles. The show premiered in September on ABC, replacing All My Children.[4]
[edit] Biography
Carla is married and has one stepson.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Alchemy Caterers: About Carla Hall[broken citation]
- ^ "'Top Chef' Finalist Carla Hall Cooks With Love" NPR.com / National Public Radio, February 26, 2009
- ^ "Get Carla Hall a Central Lobster Burger!" "Best Bites Blog", February 24, 2009
- ^ Sarah, Wildman (May 3, 2009). "Fit for Fame: Spice of Life". Washington Post Magazine. The Washington Post Company. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/magazine/features/2009/fitness/hall.html. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Biography on Bravo TV Top Chef Website
- Interview with the Washington Post
- Interview with WineFoot.com
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