Known for her colorful eyeglass frames, curly hair and love of comfort food, Carla Hall, co-host of ABC’s popular lifestyle series The Chew will be at Lekker Home this Saturday promoting her latest cookbook, Carla’s Comfort Foods: Favorite Dishes from Around the World.
The only Massachusetts stop on Hall’s national book tour, the South End-based home décor retailer is hosting a book signing and recipe demonstration with the celebrity chef. There’ll be samplings of Hall’s savory or sweet cookies, which she famously describes as “petite bites of love,” that combine her classic French training and Southern upbringing to create new twists on traditional favorites, like Pecan Shortbread with Vanilla Salt or Lemon Black Pepper Shortbread.
During her visit, she’ll be chatting with the audience about southern food or “taking the South to Boston” as she phrased it by phone in a recent exclusive interview with the Banner.
No stranger to comfort foods herself, the Nashville, Tenn., native was raised on southern fare like collard greens and cornbread. Carla’s Comfort Foods: Favorite Dishes from Around the World, published by Atria Books earlier this year, follows on the heels of her successful 2013 first effort, Cooking with Love: Comfort Food That Hugs You.
The inspiration behind Carla’s second cookbook is her love of family dinners, international flavors and the relationships that are forged through the shared experience of food. Comfort foods are near and dear to the chef’s heart because they remind her of Sunday dinners at her grandmother’s house and waiting for cornbread to be made, recalls Hall. In fact, whenever she’s homesick she makes collard greens and cornbread to cheer herself up, she says.
Hall traveled around the world collecting recipes for the book in search of the universal home-cooked flavors of comfort. She shows how seasoning can transform any simple recipe, like the all-American burger, to one of culinary delight.
Each section of the book offers a brief description of a basic recipe followed by an international variation. Carla’s Comfort Foods also provides an international spice guide that pairs seasonings with their origins and possible uses, along with an overview of some of the world’s major cuisines.
Hall’s foray into cooking was not a direct route. She earned a degree in accounting from Howard University and worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (now PwC) in Florida before quitting her job and becoming a fashion model in Europe. Her travels throughout Europe awakened her passion for food and inspired a new career path.
“It was really about the socialization that takes place in the kitchen that was around me all the time,” said Hall.
Hall came back to the U.S. and completed her culinary training at L’Academie de Cuisine in Maryland. She went on to work as a sous chef at the Henley Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., and as executive chef at the State Plaza Hotel and The Washington Club.
The next step in sharing her passion for connecting through food is opening her new restaurant, Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen, in New York City. She chose NYC because it’s where she works during the week, and southern food because she loves it.
“Southern food is the food that I love. It’s not pretentious in any form,” says Hall.
Her food philosophy is simple.
“[It’s about] cooking with love and caring every step of the way about what you’re doing. All of your emotion goes into the food, like in the movie, Like Water for Chocolate,” she says.
The Carla Hall book signing and recipe demonstration is free and open to the public. RSVP is required. Advance RSVP confirmation will be given to those purchasing her book at Lekker Home. Please RVSP at: rsvp@lekkerhome.com, in person or via the Facebook Event Page.