- Carla Hall reflects on her joyful outlook, career evolution and lessons from embracing failure.
- The chef dishes on her protein-rich routine and how she stays active amid her busy lifestyle.
- Hall shares a motivational message for women over 60: “We’re not disposable; we are sexy.”
Carla Hall joins our Zoom call from the passenger seat of a friend’s car, just minutes after leaving the airport. She’s a few minutes late due to travel delays out of her control, yet she isn’t the least bit frazzled. Hall is radiating with joy, and I share my appreciation for her time, as I know hectic travel days can be stress-inducing.
But it doesn’t even faze her. The Food Network host and award-winning chef glows through the screen, wearing bright green frames, beaded dangling earrings and a denim jacket pinned with a blue flower. I’m sure this is casual airport attire for Hall, but even when she has a valid excuse for a sweatsuit, she’s camera-ready.
Hall, 61, has done it all. And based on her undeniable energy, she’s not stopping anytime soon. While shifting careers in her early adulthood from accounting to runway modeling, she found her passion in the culinary arts. Her chef experience led to her first glimpse of fame as a contestant on two seasons of Top Chef. Being on the show taught her to not just accept failure but embrace it.
“On the show, when you’re on the top, you get feedback. When you’re on the bottom, you get feedback. But when you’re in the middle, you get nothing,” Hall explains. “And I’m someone who likes feedback, so to get nothing and just float in the middle—I would’ve preferred to be on the bottom! I mean, obviously, being on top was better, but I just need feedback to grow.”
Hall’s love for food runs deep, tracing back to her grandmother, who worked as a dietitian at a hospital. That early exposure to nourishing food as both sustenance and care shaped her own relationship with cooking.
“My favorite comfort meal is a bowl of mixed beans and collard greens,” she says. “Preferably I don’t like them to have meat. I top them with chow chow relish and have cornbread on the side. That’s my ultimate comfort. I would make it for myself when I was in New York and feeling homesick.” When she was based in New York, Hall was a co-host on The Chew, and now she hosts a reunion podcast alongside Michael Symon and Clinton Kelly.
From competition shows to talk shows, the chef knows to prioritize healthy, energizing foods in her busy routine. “My go-to food is eggs, and all of my friends know it: eggs and whatever else you have,” Hall shares. “Now I’m putting cottage cheese in my eggs because I want more protein!”
The importance of protein grows as you age, with a recent study linking higher protein intake with higher odds of healthy aging, supporting physical and mental ability. Not to mention the power protein gives to your muscle growth and bone health. Hall is aware; she prioritizes protein-rich foods before her daily workout, stressing that “I know for women, especially older women, it’s good for us to have a little protein before we work out.”
It doesn’t matter where she is or how packed her schedule may be; Hall always finds time to move her body. “If I am in a hotel, sometimes I will walk up and down the steps for about 15 minutes before I get my day going,” she shares. When she’s in her Washington, D.C., home, she uses her Peloton for a more structured workout. And while being active, Hall stays hydrated—but you will never find coffee in her cup.
“I’m a water drinker in the morning,” Hall notes, emphasizing that she was never one to prefer coffee. Actually, she doesn’t really gravitate to a hot beverage first thing, but when she wants to cozy up, she’ll opt for a cup of tea: “My favorite tea is hot cinnamon spice by Harney & Sons. I freaking love it.”
As if we’re winding down with some of her favorite soothing tea, our conversation turns toward reflecting on Hall’s continually impressive life, and what she wishes she knew sooner. She’s candid about how aging has only amplified her confidence and clarity.
“We’re not disposable; we are sexy,” Hall says when asked what myth about aging she wishes she could debunk. “Our best years are not behind us. As I age, I am filled with so much more wisdom, wisdom that I can actually use.” And instead of giving advice to her former self, she picks an unsuspecting subject to direct it to.
“Everything I would say to my younger self, truly, it’s for you,” she shares, somehow making eye contact with me through our digital barrier. Here’s the advice that I will forever cherish from Hall: “You may cry a little bit, you may laugh a little bit, but have the tears, have the laughter and know that everything that you experience, you will need later.”
During our post-interview pleasantries and back-and-forth goodbyes, Hall says to me, “I hope you are going to leave this interview thinking, Wow, I can’t wait to be 60!” If being 60 promises even a fraction of the invigoration that ran through me after taking in her wisdom, even if it was for just a moment, then I wholeheartedly look forward to it.
