A self-proclaimed elevator talker, Carla Hall is at ease anywhere—whether delivering homemade sandwiches to barbershops, cooking on Good Morning America, or explaining why you can never have enough chowchow pickle while peeling shrimp in her kitchen. Raised in Nashville, Hall grew up watching her grandmothers, both excellent cooks, in the kitchen. She still remembers her Nashville grandmother’s good-for-you soul food (green bean salad with pickled red onions, tomato pie with garlic bread crust) and the Sunday lunches at the home of her other grandmother, who lived in New York City. “It’s funny, but she would never make the corn bread until she saw the whites of our eyes and we were inside the door,” she recalls. So cooking was obviously in her genes, but it took Hall a while to realize it.
Instead, her dreams were more focused on the theater than making meals. It wasn’t until she was modeling in Paris that she became more interested in the foods of her childhood. One day over brunch with a fellow Tennessean, the conversation turned to mac ’n’ cheese and Hall realized that she “had no idea how her mother made her mac ’n’ cheese.” Then she made her first chicken potpie, a gift to friends who were letting her sleep on their sofa, following a recipe (except for the part where she swapped celery in for leeks) from a cookbook by the Culinary Institute of America. Even though it took her what felt like three days to make, her friends went crazy over it. She had made “something that everybody wanted,” Hall remembers. And she understood what she wanted to do next.
She landed in Washington, D.C., without a job, spent two hundred dollars on a mail-delivery truck, and while working from her sister’s home, began selling sandwiches and soups to local businesses. Her success gave her the confidence to go further. “There was a certain power I felt when people were waiting to see me arrive at their door with smoked turkey on biscuits, soups, or cakes,” she says. Cooking school in D.C. and a catering business followed.
It wasn’t until she began cooking on TV that Hall fully embraced her grandmothers’ legacy and began putting her own version of soul food on the table. And while she never won those Top Chef competitions (though she was voted a fan favorite), she remembered her grandmother’s advice at a key moment in the competition: “It’s your job to be happy, not rich. If you do that, then everything else will follow.”
Hall is deservedly very proud of making soul food—just using seasonal ingredients and making lighter fare than her grandmothers did. “My grandmothers would make large pieces of collard greens cooked in pork and cook them for a long time. I cook them with smoked paprika and olive oil. I cut them into thin ribbons to speed up the cooking time while keeping them tender.”
She divides her time between New York City, where she films Strahan and Sara, and Washington, D.C. The kitchen of her apartment in New York is on the small side. There’s a huge battery of pots and pans, since Hall uses it often for recipe testing. She does get homesick, though. “The things that I make up here are greens, corn bread, and beans. I make the things that make me feel good, those homey things.”
CURRENT HOMETOWN: Washington, D.C.
SHOW THAT MADE HER NAME: Top Chef
SIGNATURE STYLE: Cooking with love—and her Southern-influenced food
BEST KNOWN FOR: Cooking on Strahan and Sara; her cohosting days on ABC’s The Chew; and her cookbooks, including Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration
FRIDGE: Liebherr
- KOMBUCHA—“My husband, Matthew, drinks this.”
- WATER
- BEER—“We don’t drink beer but I do cook with it. I had this one for making a beer bread. I also use beer in my chili recipe.”
- WILLIAMS FAMILY KITCHEN NONO SAUCE
- MAYONNAISE—“I picked up the generic brand when I was on a quick run to the store. So I bought Hellman’s the next time they had it at the store.”
- TRUFFLE KETCHUP—“A swag bag gift.”
- CHOWCHOW PICKLE—“I keep the jarred ones for gifting and the others in plastic I will use for events.”
- APPLE CARDAMOM SHRUB—“I use this as a mocktail mixer.”
- DANIEL BREAKER’S HOMEMADE HOT SAUCE—“Daniel and his son make a batch every year and give them out at their annual Christmas party.”
- SRIRACHA
- GREEN OLIVES—“I snack on these and use them in Greek salads. I also like them with a chicken and cooked tomatoes dish.”
- GREEK YOGURT
- SAUERKRAUT—“I made it myself once, but generally I buy it.”
- HOMEMADE TOMATO SAUCE, from a friend
- SHRIMP
- WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE
- DIJON MUSTARD
- WOLFERMAN’S TRIPLE BERRY PRESERVES
- HOMEMADE SIMPLE SYRUP, for stirring into tea or cocktails
- CHILI SAUCE
- HABANERO TEA SYRUP, for making sweet tea soda
- EDUARDO GARCIA’S MONTANA MEX SWEET AND SPICY HABANERO SAUCE
- ALMOND BUTTER—“Sometimes you feel like almonds and sometimes you feel like peanuts. I use almond butter in smoothies.”
- PEANUT BUTTER—“If I’m going to have nut butter with jam, I then use peanut butter.”
- MINT
- SWEET POTATOES—“I’m not here a lot so I keep these in the fridge so they don’t go bad.”
- FETA CHEESE—“I usually keep this up top, but there was a space issue, so I put it in the veggie drawer.”
Q & A
You seem to do a lot of batch cooking. For our Thanksgiving and Christmas, we always have collard greens and chowchow, which is a pickle relish. I grew up eating chowchow. The first time I had to make chowchow was for an event. So I thought if I’m making it for them, then I’m making it for myself as well. I must have made thirty pounds of chowchow when I only needed ten pounds for the event. So I gave lots of it away. Since it’s a pickle, it doesn’t go bad—it only gets better.
How do you eat your chowchow? I eat the chowchow on everything—on eggs for breakfast, hot dogs, tortilla chips, on everything. I like chowchow so much I basically use the other food like a spoon. I love sour. I love pickles.
Something we’d never find in your fridge? Honestly even if I had canned cranberry sauce in there, if I want it and I’m buying it, it’s okay. I can’t be food-shamed.
Where do you go food shopping in New York? Trader Joe’s around the corner, Fairway, the farmers market on Wednesdays at Union Square. One thing I have never done is order my groceries online. Another thing I don’t do here is order delivery. When you are not from that mindset it is strange. I do a little carryout, but I can count the number of times I have done it here. In D.C., I shop at Whole Foods, as it’s close to my house, and a daily farmers market. I like shopping there because I can taste. I can get onesies—just one of something.
What is next to your refrigerator? A standing pot rack? I have to do a lot of recipe testing, so I need a variety of pots and pans and I got this pot tree to make it easier. Now when I’m cooking for myself I use them more often too.
Any clever uses for leftovers? For me if I cook a soup, I will eat it every single day until it’s done. I have no problem with leftovers. Sometimes if I make a pureed soup I will later use it for a sauce.
Any New York City food memories? The first time that I came to New York, I went to see Bubbling Brown Sugar and that changed my world—it was after seeing it that I imagined I wanted to be an actress. After the play, my other grandmother, Thelma, made fried chicken at my uncle’s apartment in Harlem. Because he didn’t have anything in his fridge, she went out and got flour, salt, and pepper. It was the best fried chicken I ever had.
What were your biggest crowd-pleasers during your catering years? I would say curry chicken salad on croissants and also biscuits with smoked turkey. I still make the same biscuits.
Guilty pleasure? Chocolate sauce over ice cream. Although I don’t have any right now.
You said you really like oatmeal. Do you prefer steel-cut or quick oats? I don’t like quick oats. I love toasted steel-cut oats. I make the oats with half fruit juice and half water. I also love savory oats with spinach and kefir—yes! There is a store here called OatMeals. I eat a lot of oatmeal and I can talk to people for days about oats.
What are your favorite things to snack on while you cook? I usually eat the ends of the vegetables I am cutting. I snack on nuts and grapes too.