Susie Anderson & Gabriel Weber
Staff Writer
When celebrity chef Carla Hall teaches her culinary masterclass this evening in Norton Hall, she not only aims to share her love for the meal she’s preparing, but make a point that one can never get too high-brow to make something you love.
She’ll be making hot dogs.
“I want to make something approachable,” Hall said. “Most chefs, if they leave a fine dining restaurant, the thing that they want to make is a hamburger or something. Hot dogs, pizza or tacos, too, because those are the dishes that have memories, and it’s just comforting.”
But before her masterclass, for the Chautauqua Lecture Series Week Seven theme “Kwame Alexander and Friends: The Power of One,” chef, author and television personality Hall will discuss the importance of cooking with love at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater in conversation with Alexander.
In curating this week, Alexander had two primary considerations: “Who am I going to be interested in hearing from? That’s going to make it just a huge deal for me,” Alexander said. “So that was the first thing. Second thing, who has a story that I think will resonate with Chautauqua? I just want interesting people who have a story to tell.”
Honored with the Grande Dame Award from Les Dames d’Escoffier for contributions in the field of food and recipient of an NAACP Image Awards nomination, Hall definitely fits the bill.
Hall first became a fan favorite when she competed on “Top Chef” and “Top Chef: All Stars” and shared her philosophy of food as a source of connection.
Going to culinary school at 30 years old, Hall first started her own lunch delivery service as a “fluke” while she was in Paris modeling; her colleagues’ first question was “Who’s cooking?” The models had Sunday dinners, going back and forth about their favorite family dishes when Hall realized she didn’t know her mother’s recipes so well.
While she did hang out in the kitchen while her grandmother cooked, Hall was uninterested in her methods and stuck around in hopes of a taste test or getting a bowl to lick clean. The role of connection around food is paramount, Hall said, as it brings people together in the moment and through memory.
“What I love was the socialization that took place in the kitchen, and that’s what it was like at home. In hindsight, I was recreating the Sunday suppers at my grandmother’s house,” Hall said. “When I’m feeling homesick, I’m either looking for people to eat with or a particular dish. Even when I was on ‘Top Chef,’ when I was really nervous, I made food for a challenge that I wanted to eat later — the chicken pot pie.”
Plus, chicken pot pie is one of her absolute favorites. Hall considers herself a “food whisperer,” in that she can always taste someone’s heart in the food — or lack thereof.
“I think there are a lot of people who cook with ego. They’re more concerned with what the dish looks like, not how it’s going or sharing a part of yourself,” Hall said. “I think it’s female energy versus male energy. I’m not saying you have to be a woman, but it is that nurturing energy that wants to hug somebody versus look at what I can do, which I think is male energy.”
Family recipes and shared stories through food influence who people are. When Hall cooks for her mother — who has dementia — food like her grandmother’s oatmeal sandwich creams help Hall’s mother remember that her own mama used to make them; that kind of impression is something she enjoys from other’s dishes, as well.
“A potluck is the ultimate community-building event. Everybody’s bringing something, and you get to talk to people about their food and how they made it. If you have like, 10 macaroni and cheese dishes, each macaroni and cheese comes from some memory of that person,” Hall said. “In hearing those stories, you’re building community. Even with my cookbook, every dish has a reason, even if I just wanted to learn how to make it, but I wanted to learn how to make it because of a reason, event or experience.”
