Carla Hall is a force in food culture. More importantly, she's stayed centered and positive in the face of adversity. Here are some of the tragic details that have helped make Hall who she is today.
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00:00Karla Hall is a force in food culture. More importantly, she's stayed centered and positive
00:05in the face of adversity. Here are some of the tragic details that have helped make Hall
00:09who she is today. Karla Hall grew up middle class in Nashville, Tennessee,
00:13but her early home life had its troubles. Despite the fact that she's a very family-oriented person,
00:19Hall doesn't speak about her father, George Morris Hall, very often. She has disclosed
00:23that he was an alcoholic and that his battle with addiction is the reason why she doesn't drink.
00:27Hall's father also had a history of domestic violence, inflicting abuse on her mother, Audrey.
00:32Her parents divorced, then remarried, when Hall was young. By the time she was seven,
00:36they were divorced for a second time. Still, not all of Hall's recollections of her father are
00:41tragic. Sitting with her parents and sister at the dinner table are among her earliest childhood
00:46memories. Her father would discuss music and psychology, and Hall says she inherited her
00:50comedic timing from him. George Morris Hall died several years ago. One of the last memories Hall
00:55has of her father is sitting down together for soul food in Nashville.
00:59In a 2018 interview with Garden & Gun, Hall said,
01:02"'Theater' saved me from being bullied because I was a quirky kid and really shy."
01:06From age 11, Hall's passion was acting. She attended Nashville Academy Theater Camp every
01:11summer and took acting classes in high school. But when her application to Boston University's
01:15School of Theater was deferred, Hall lost her way. She enrolled at Washington, D.C.'s Howard
01:20University, where her sister was a student. There, she majored in accounting. On the principle that
01:24she had liked her high school accounting teacher and enjoyed working with numbers.
01:28But two years as an accountant at Price Waterhouse sent Hall into an existential crisis.
01:32She followed a group of young women to Paris in the late 80s, where she pursued modeling.
01:37In Paris, Hall and other Black models would have Sunday suppers at the home of a woman
01:41named Elaine Evans. Hall listened to the other models talk about cooking,
01:44something she knew nothing about.
01:46I think the most shocking thing about that is that models actually eat.
01:49I saw those!
01:49But before leaving Europe, she began to buy cookbooks and make meals for friends.
01:53She told Garden & Gun,
01:55"[Paris ended up being the bridge between what I knew I didn't want to do
01:58and what I eventually wanted to do."
02:00She's gonna be a star.
02:01She returned to Washington, D.C. with the beginnings of her culinary career in the works.
02:06Many of Hall's memories are centered around Sunday suppers at her maternal grandmother's house.
02:11From her kitchen in Lebanon, Tennessee, Freddie My Price Glover, better known to Hall as Granny,
02:15prepared post-church soul food feasts of smothered pork chops, mac and cheese,
02:19collard greens from the garden, candied sweet potatoes, and cast-iron cornbread.
02:23I just looked at her and waited until she poured those pork chops
02:27on the serving platter and oh my God!
02:31It was Granny who showed Hall the importance of cooking with love. It was what she always did,
02:36until Alzheimer's disease took her from the kitchen and eventually claimed her life at the
02:40age of 96. Granny suppers remain at the heart of Hall's connection with food, but when she was
02:45young, Hall loved eating more than cooking, and would often be found playing outside while Granny
02:50worked her magic in the kitchen. One of the first signs that Granny was losing her memory was seen
02:54in her signature dishes. In a 2022 speech to the Alzheimer's Association, Hall remembered,
02:59We all loved her macaroni and cheese so much that she served it every Sunday.
03:04There was one point when she served us macaroni noodles and milk. There was no cheese.
03:08It wasn't baked."
03:09Her disease progressed to the point that she no longer remembered family, but Hall recalled,
03:13Touching her hands was powerful. If I close my eyes, I can feel her hands right now."
03:18For three years, Hall modeled in Paris and London, but in 1991,
03:22she was lured home by a newfound interest in cooking. When she catered her sister's baby
03:26shower with homemade smoked turkey, buttermilk biscuits, sandwiches, and chest pie, she promised
03:31to bring leftovers to a friend, only there weren't any.
03:34Guess what? I'd break my turkey down like a chicken. Yeah, just like a chicken."
03:39So she remade the food the following day and brought it to the doctor's office where her
03:43friend worked. The other employees were so impressed that they asked Hall for prices
03:47so they could order lunch from her every day. Hall made up her pricing on the spot,
03:50naming her company Lunch Basket after the picnic basket she packed the food in.
03:54From there, she went door-to-door in the Washington, D.C. area,
03:57gradually building up her clientele. She reportedly didn't take a single day off
04:01for the next five years. As business picked up, she began delivering food in an old mail truck.
04:06Five years in, Hall felt that her food would be even better if she went to culinary school,
04:10so at the age of 30, she enrolled at Maryland's L'Academie de Cuisine.
04:15In the wake of the unrest surrounding George Floyd's death in 2020,
04:18Hall opened up about a brush with police brutality in the mid-'90s. She was driving
04:22home from a work engagement in D.C. when she coasted through a red light and was pulled over.
04:27Hall handed her license and registration to the officer, but was told to step out of her vehicle
04:31because her documents were expired. In disbelief, Hall found herself handcuffed and pressed against
04:36the trunk of her car as several other police cars arrived. As her fear mounted, a female officer
04:41advised that it wouldn't end well for Hall if she didn't stay calm. She was taken to a police
04:45station in handcuffs and eventually released. In speaking about this traumatic experience,
04:50Hall wanted to illuminate the dangers of racial profiling, telling ABC 7 News,
04:54"'Sometimes I think I'm seen as Carla, but not really a Black woman. I think sometimes I want
04:58to say that if you don't see my color, see my culture.'" Between attending culinary school
05:03and her catering business, Hall didn't have time for love. Then she met Matthew Lyons on
05:08an internet dating site, and just nine months later, they were married.
05:11"'When he found me was the first day that I actually had gone onto max.com.'"
05:15Just before their wedding, Hall became pregnant,
05:18but she had a miscarriage about eight weeks into the pregnancy. Her immediate reaction was
05:22acceptance. Hall was in her 40s and hadn't planned the pregnancy, so she took the loss
05:26as a sign from the universe. She admits now that it might seem insensitive, but she simply asked
05:31the doctor what she needed to do in order to go to work and move on. Hall has no biological children,
05:36but is a stepmother to Lyons' son from a previous relationship.
05:40Season 5 of Top Chef was Hall's to lose, and lose she did. When the season finale kicked off,
05:45three contestants remained — Stefan Richter, Hosea Rosenberg, and Hall. Hall's cook-with-love
05:50strategy paid off until a major mistake cost her the whole competition.
05:54"'My strategy is to incorporate big flavors, comfort food, exciting but still a little refined."
06:01When the sous chefs were announced for the final meal, Hall was paired with season 3's
06:05Casey Thompson. While menu planning, Thompson pushed for using the sous vide method to cook
06:09New York strip steak and swapping a blue cheese souffle for the cheese tart Hall originally
06:14envisioned.
06:14"...that you let your sous chef talk you out of cooking the food that got you to the finale,
06:20and I'm not quite sure I understand that."
06:22Right.
06:22The changes made for major flaws in Hall's meal. Hall was teary-eyed as she acknowledged where
06:27it all went wrong, and Rosenberg became top chef.
06:30Fresh off her appearance on season 8 of Top Chef All-Stars, Hall signed on as a co-host
06:34of ABC's The Chew, an hour-long show all about food which debuted in 2011. But she didn't feel
06:40deserving of the opportunity at first. The learning curve was so intimidating, it gave her stomach
06:44pains and caused her to go home crying.
06:46"...imagine having a job and thinking every day that you're gonna get fired."
06:50She lived with that fear of being fired until she saw a sidekick who advised her that she
06:54would be on the show for five more years. A similar surge of imposter syndrome flared up
06:58while writing her first cookbook, 2012's Cooking with Love, Comfort Food That Hugs You.
07:03Hall's lack of confidence caused her to overcompensate. Hall made some of the
07:06recipes in her first cookbook extra complicated in order to prove her command of the kitchen,
07:11but it was Hall's refreshing brand of authenticity that made her famous in the first place.
07:15Initially, The Chew wasn't well-received. But as time went on,
07:19the host got into a groove and Hall's effervescent personality shone through.
07:23"...it probably seems like I drink a lot of caffeine, which I do not."
07:27At its peak, the show amassed 3 million daily viewers. The Chew won Emmy awards
07:31for Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host in 2015 and Outstanding Talk Show-slash-Informative
07:36in 2016.
07:37"...here she is. This is for the best host. And, um, yeah, it's kinda heavy."
07:42But in 2017, co-host Mario Batali left amidst a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations that
07:48put an end to his celebrity chef career. And just one year later, after seven seasons and
07:521,500 episodes, ABC gave The Chew the axe. Shocked by the decision, Hall suddenly found
07:58herself out of a day job.
08:00Black female chefs have never gotten the visibility they deserve. Hall has been
08:03instrumental in changing that. But even after achieving celebrity chef status,
08:07she's had to battle prejudice. For instance, Hall's salary for The Chew was a fifth of what
08:11the male hosts made. She initially believed it was because she had less experience.
08:15However, she wasn't able to renegotiate her contract until the show's final season.
08:20In fact, Hall was only offered more fair compensation once the show was on the verge
08:24of cancellation. Perhaps more surprising was Hall having to defend her 2018 cookbook,
08:28Carla Hall's Soul Food, every day in celebration to her own team.
08:31Their insinuations that a Soul Food cookbook might alienate her white fan base didn't go over well.
08:36"'I am going to reclaim Soul Food because I really love being Black. I love everything
08:42that we have contributed to this cuisine.'"
08:45Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2020, Hall said,
08:48"'You don't say that to people who are Italian or Greek or Chinese or Indian,
08:52so why would you say that to me when I want to share my food? Why would Soul Food be for one
08:56group?' For Hall, opening a Southern restaurant in Brooklyn really seemed like a great idea.
09:01At the time, she was filming The Chew in New York, and it goes without saying that Hall and
09:05Soul Food are a match made in gastronomical heaven. Carla Hall's Southern Kitchen opened
09:10in Brooklyn's Columbia Street waterfront district in 2016. A year later, it closed.
09:15How could Hall, a hardworking chef and lovable television personality,
09:18shutter her first restaurant so quickly? The answer, at least partly, was lack of know-how.
09:24"'Hoodie-hoo, Kickstarters!"
09:25She used a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the restaurant,
09:28which caused some to scoff at the idea of such a high-profile chef resorting to public funding.
09:33Also, the Kickstarter and actual opening were nearly two years apart,
09:37prompting more than a few funders to grow suspicious.
09:39"'I could not predict how long it would take to actually find a space.'"
09:45The food at Southern Kitchen was one of its few saving graces. Yet an over-fixation on branding,
09:50its Outer Borough location, and inexperienced staff hurt the business.
09:54Two months in, there was an electrical fire and the walk-in fridge had to be replaced — twice.
09:59What's more, Hall's commitment to The Chew didn't allow her enough time at the restaurant.
10:02All in all, a recipe for disaster.
10:05Hall has spent much of her culinary career and beyond connecting to her roots and seeking out
10:10information about her ancestral history. When she took a test from 23andMe, a biotechnology
10:15company that uses genotyping to provide insight on genetic health and heritage,
10:19the genetic testing panel detected a predisposition to late-onset Alzheimer's disease.
10:23Hall wasn't exactly surprised. Her maternal grandmother died from the condition at 96,
10:28and Hall's mother was diagnosed with early dementia. Not one to come undone by a bout
10:32of bad news, Hall has embraced a series of preventative measures to help offset the
10:36risk of developing Alzheimer's. Her current wellness routine includes walking and working
10:40out with light weights three to five times a week, as dementia-related studies show that
10:44light exercise is beneficial to brain health. She's cut back on sugar — no easy feat for a
10:49judge on Food Network's Halloween Baking Championship — and is incorporating more
10:53whole grains and protein into her diet. In an interview with Marie Claire in 2024,
10:57Hall declared,
10:58"...I want to live until I'm 104, specifically because my great-grandmother passed away at 103,
11:03and I want to beat her."