Carla Hall inspires new holiday traditions with her children’s book, The Christmas Cornbread

Written by Michael Cox

Just in time for the holiday season, Carla Hall is releasing a children’s book titled The Christmas Cornbread.You’ve probably seen or heard of Carla Hall from her competing in the Bravo’s Cooking Competition show Top Chef and Top Chef: All Stars. Or maybe you know her from her 7 years co-hosting the Emmy Award Winning ABC talk show The Chew. On either show, you’ve probably noticed Carla Hall’s love and connection with food and cooking. I had the opportunity to talk with Carla about her new book and her love for food.

The idea for The Christmas Cornbread started with Carla’s family. She spoke fondly of her memories of her grandmother’s house. “My favorite thing that [my grandmother] would make was cornbread,” said Carla. The memories, family, and food inspired her to write a memoir. Eventually, Carla said “we ended up turning [the memoir] into a children’s book.”

So what happens when you eat all of Santa’s cookies? Make Santa some cornbread instead! The Christmas Cornbread is about Carla almost ruining Christmas by eating all of Santa’s cookies. When she thinks she is getting in trouble with her Grandmother, she finds out that her grandmother has the solution to make Santa cornbread instead.

It’s the perfect book to read to your young ones and connect family together. Carla sees a familial connection in food. She puts an importance on preserving traditional recipes and making sure that the new generation is able to connect with the older generation through the sharing of food and recipes. “So when I think back to my life, and I think back to all of these dishes that my grandmother made, because we had more traditions that we were always going to my grandmother’s house once a week, but my sister’s kids didn’t necessarily have that. So when I did my first cookbook, I made sure that when we have our holiday dinners that they choose a recipe from that cookbook to make so that they have some connection and knowledge of our family’s background and the things that we made. And they got to know my grandmother as well.” For Carla, making the food from her grandmother for her sister’s kid is the same as sharing the memory of her grandmother.

The Christmas Cornbread really connects different aspects of Carla’s life. We get to see Carla as a child and know of her grandmother’s cornbread, we get to see the connection between food and family that Carla holds close to her heart, and we also get to see Carla’s care and love for all children. Carla sits on a board called the Panchama program where she reads books and provides pajamas to at-risk children. “It’s all about having a good night because good night’s produce healthy children. And also, reading books to children is about their creativity…in which they can dream and aspire and inspire,” said Carla. “So this was not only about my life, but also the things that I do now in my life.”

And perhaps for some holiday bonding, you can eat all of Santa’s cookies, read The Christmas Cornbread with your kids, and make the Sweet Cinnamon Butter Cornbread with your kids.