baking

November 16, 2022April 17, 2026

Chef Carla Hall Talks Top Chef, the Shift from Caterer to Food Media, and How to Make Amazing Biscuits

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About Carla Hall

Chef Carla Hall was a contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef and Top Chef All-Stars. Carla spent 7 years co-hosting ABC’s Emmy award-winning, popular lifestyle series “The Chew”. She’s been on multiple Food Network programs, was a judge on Netflix’s Crazy Delicious, and is a culinary contributor to “Good Morning America”. She’s the author of four cookbooks, in addition to a number of cookbooks put out by The Chew.

On This Week’s Podcast

On this week’s podcast, we discuss her Top Chef experience, and why she wanted to return for Top Chef All-Stars. We talk about the transition from catering to food media, licensing her recipes, and chef-in-residence programs. This is also a mini-Masterclass in biscuit-making. She talks about what makes a good (and bad) biscuit, and gives lots of actionable tips.

As always, the episode link is below, and the podcast is available on all platforms (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pandora)

Relevant Links and Where to Learn About Carla Hall

Carla’s Instagram
Carlas’s Website

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This Week’s Sponsors

Sponsor- The United States Personal Chef Association
Over the past 30 years, the world of the personal chef has grown in importance to fulfill dining needs. While the pandemic certainly upended the restaurant experience, it allowed personal chefs to close that dining gap. Central to all of that is the United States Personal Chef Association.

USPCA provides a strategic backbone for those chefs that includes liability insurance, training, communications, certification, and more. It’s a reassurance to consumers that the chef coming into their home is prepared to offer them an experience with their meal.

Call Angela today at 800-995-2138 ext 705 or email her at aprather@uspca.com for membership and partner info.

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May 16, 2022April 17, 2026

Everything Bagel & Pilsner Focaccia

About the recipe

This is by far one of the easiest breads to make. I started making focaccia at the beginning of COVID. Thankfully I have a lot of chef friends who kept my pantry stocked with flour and yeast. While I’ve made a similar one before, this was the first time I’d made a whole-wheat focaccia. I chose the Silver Bread Flour from Deep Roots Milling in Lowesville, VA. It’s their organic redeemer hard red winter wheat. It baked up really nicely, with a slighly tighter crumb than I usually get when using a white bread flour.

This recipe is by chef Chris Spear of Perfect Little Bites personal chef service.

Recipe

550g bread flour (whole wheat, white or a blend)⁣
5.5 g (1 ½ tsp) kosher salt⁣
6 g (2 tsp) instant yeast
5 g (1 tsp) granulated sugar⁣
410 g (420ml) lukewarm liquid (1 bottle pilsner beer + 52 g filtered water- see notes)⁣
4 T olive oil, divided⁣
1 ½ T Everything Spice (such as the one from Spiceology)
1/4 tsp smoked paprika⁣
fleu de sel salt⁣
olive oil pan spray⁣

Method

Heat the water and beer to 110 degrees F. Place the flour, salt, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Slowly add the warm liquid. Knead for 5 minutes on medium. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour on the counter, then move to the refrigerator and let it sit overnight.⁣
⁣
Remove the dough from the fridge. Spray a 1/4 baking sheet with pan spray, then rub 2 T olive oil on the pan, making sure to get the sides coated too. Add the dough to the pan, and stretch it gently with your fingers. Allow it to come to room temp, rest and rise for an hour. Then stretch it again and let it rest for another hour.⁣
⁣
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Pour 1 T olive oil on top of the dough and spread it all over the top. Sprinkle smoked paprika on top. Top the dough evenly with the everything spice. Using your fingers, press about 20 indentations evenly into the dough. Drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Top with fleur de sel or Maldon salt.⁣
⁣
Bake until golden brown, around 30 minutes. Let cool just slightly before transferring the focaccia to a wire rack to cool.⁣
⁣
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Notes- I used 1 standard bottle of beer. It should give you 358 grams, which is why I added the very specific 52 grams of water, to bring it up to a total of 410. For this bread, I used a pilsner, but feel free to use a pale ale, wheat beer or even use all water if you prefer.

March 9, 2021March 15, 2021

The Chefs Without Restaurants Podcast – Episode 82 Pastry Chef and Author Lisa Donovan Talks About Writing Her Memoir, the Restaurant Industry and Chess Pie

Pastry Chef and Author Lisa Donovan Talks About Writing Her Memoir, the Restaurant Industry and Chess Pie

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You can listen to the show on Buzzsprout, ITunes, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Pandora and I Heart Radio.

Before we get going, I wanted to let everyone know that I recently launched a Patreon, so you can help support the show, and the Chefs Without Restaurants organization. You can find the link in the show notes, or at patreon.com/chefswithoutrestaurants. I think there are some great rewards, with more to come. If you have a minute, check out the video that I uploaded to the site. And I really want to thank my first two supporters, chefs Justin Khanna and Matt Collins. Justin recoded an episode with me a few months ago, which I broke into two episodes, and I should be releasing my episode with Matt next month. Thanks for the support.

On this week’s show, I speak with Lisa Donovan. She’s a pastry chef and James Beard award winning writer. She’s helmed the pastry kitchens of some of the most important restaurants in the country, including Husk in Nashville, and has kept her whole life afloat by making, writing on and thinking about food – including consulting, recipe development, selling pies out of the trunk of her car and creating the now retired Buttermilk Road Sunday Suppers

While Lisa is a pastry chef, this isn’t really a discussion about kitchens, though we do touch on that. She writes full time now, and her first book, Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger was released in August, 2020. Most of our discussion revolves around the process of, and decision to write her memoir, and everything that came along with it. We discuss the current state of the restaurant industry, getting comfortable with your audience even when it’s not who you expected it to be, and I get to talk to her about chess pie.

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Lisa Donovan
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Lisa’s Instagram
Lisa’s book Our Lady Of Perpetual Hunger
Lisa’s Twitter https://twitter.com/ButtermilkRoad
Lisa’s reci p e for Buttermilk Chess Pie

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Chefs Without Restaurants Founder Chris Spear of Perfect Little Bites

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February 23, 2021February 24, 2021

The Chefs Without Restaurants Podcast – Episode 80 Pastry Chef Bria Taylor of Killa Cakes on Big Flavors, Being a Self-Taught Baker and Starting a Business

Pastry Chef Bria Taylor of Killa Cakes on Big Flavors, Being a Self-Taught Baker and Starting a Business

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You can listen to the show on all platforms here

On the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast this week I have pastry chef Bria Taylor. She’s the owner of Killa Cakes, a Washington D.C. area cake business. Trained in graphic arts, Bria has no formal training in baking. In fact, she is completely self-taught.

We discuss learning to bake, the process of starting a business, big flavors, and the possibility of a sandwich pop-up.

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Bria Taylor
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Bria’s Instagram
The Killa Cakes Website

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CONNECT WITH US

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Subscribe to The Chefs Without Restaurants Newsletter

Visit Our Amazon Shop (I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.)

Check out our other website https://chefswithoutrestaurants.org

Like our Facebook page

Join the private Facebook group

Join the conversation on Twitter

Check our Insta pics

Find us on TikTok

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Chefs Without Restaurants Founder Chris Spear of Perfect Little Bites

April 20, 2020October 22, 2020

The Chefs Without Restaurants Podcast – Episode 33 Katrice Scott of Frederick, Maryland’s Two Sweet Bakery

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You can listen to the show on Buzzsprout, ITunes, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, Pandora and I Heart Radio.

On this episode we have Katrice Scott. Katrice is one half of Two Sweet, the custom confections business she started in Frederick, Maryland with her twin sister Karin.

On this episode:

Transitioning for baking at home, to cooking out of a commercial kitchen

The impact of Covid-19 on life and business

Finding time to be creative

The cookie business

Businesses Mentioned: Canapes Catering, Frederick Community College, Djs Catering, Dutch’s Daughter, Lazy Fish, and Jerk n Jive

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