Carla Hall has contributed so much, and so joyously at that, to the 21st century food conversation. The Washington, D.C.
-based chef delighted and impressed audiences and judges with a runner-up placement on "Top Chef" in 2008, launching her career as a food celebrity, personality, and mind. Not only does she bring Southern and soul food to the masses with her cookbooks, and return appearances on "Top Chef" in multiple capacities and in many other places, but she also co-hosted the food-based daily ABC talk show "The Chew" for years, ran a restaurant, and maintains one of the . Hall exudes a contagious happiness, but she isn't immune to the horrors of life.
She found fame later in life relative to other food personalities, having experienced a great deal of pain and trauma that she had to work through and has talked about openly, showing support for other survivors and fans and that they can achieve whatever they put their mind to, despite challenges they've faced. Here's a look into the dark side and sometimes tragic life of Carla Hall, and what she went through to get to where she is today. She was raised by an abusive alcoholic father Carla Hall was raised in Nashville in a two-parent home for most of her early childhood.
While she credits her father, cafeteria worker George Morris Hall, with imbuing in her an appreciation of Southern food, as well as the sense of humor that both inform so much of her professional persona, hers was a rough childhood affected by violence and.