Advice From the 'Top': Carla Hall

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (1)

TWO THINGS MADE D.C.-based caterer Carla Hall stand out as she sliced and sauteed her way into the final three on Bravo's "Top Chef": big hair and big flavors. Yet her waistline? Anything but big. Express got the skinny on her dining habits and how to copy her bold but not-so-bad-for-you recipes.

» EXPRESS: How on earth did you learn to cook while modeling? I thought models starved themselves.
» HALL: It's so funny. All the models I know can eat. I know at least five that will eat you under the table. So I wish I had some secret I could share about staying skinny, but it's natural.

» EXPRESS: Even when your specialty is comfort food?
» HALL: But my food is very light because I want to be able to taste the ingredients. Let's say I'm making greens — which have a lot of vitamin A and vitamin C — and instead of using pork, I may use smoked turkey. I can flavor the water with that. So I'll blanch the greens with salted water and toss it with oil. I haven't cooked out all the nutrients and the smoked turkey only adds a little bit of flavor at the end. When you're going after a flavor profile, you don't need that much of it.

» EXPRESS: In one challenge, you were planning a vegetarian dish but chickened out. Do you eat vegetarian a lot?
» HALL: I love a good hamburger and lamb, but I don't crave meat. I think you intuitively eat what your body craves, and I crave vegetables and starches. That's what gives me energy. But my husband, he needs meat. I'm also into food combining. You can put a carb with vegetables or a meat with vegetables, but you shouldn't put meat and carbs together. It slows things down.

» EXPRESS: You seem to have a deep connection to your food.
» HALL: It's very intuitive for me. When I'm shopping, I get drawn to things and that's what I go with.

» EXPRESS: OK, I think everyone at home was drawn to those peas you made for Jacques Pepin. How'd you do it?
» HALL: The first thing is I blanched the peas in salted water so they're crisp and tender. Then I made a lemon thyme butter, which had lemon zest and a little blanched shallots. They're a little sweet, salty, bitter and sour. Any dish is successful when you balance it. Textures too — they were crisp on the outside and soft inside so you get that burst. And I love peas, and when you love something, people can tell when they're eating your food.

» EXPRESS: You teach a lot of cooking classes. Is it possible to teach "love"?
» HALL: I try to. I teach [my students] how to prepare a dish, but I want them to feel it. I always get questions about how long should I keep this in? Everybody wants to be so clinical about food. But if your oven is hotter than mine, in 30 minutes, it could be burnt to a crisp. So I teach what to look for, what you should be smelling. You need to cook with your senses. And if you're connected to your food, you're doing it with love.

» EXPRESS: You were known on the show for your fabulous desserts. Any ideas for making sweet stuff healthier?
» HALL: We get that all the time — a client says, "My husband has a stent and he can't eat high-calorie or high-cholesterol food." So we substitute buttery sticks and silken tofu for cream. For a tiramisu, you can use silken tofu and almond milk, and make your mousse that way.

» EXPRESS: Crave any healthy desserts?
» HALL: I love soy ice cream, and there are these vegan cookies at Chez Hareg off of U Street. I love her cookies. I think moderation is the key. When you deny yourself, you just want that thing more. But if you have a little bit, that satisfies the craving and then you can balance it out.