What were your favorite foods growing up?
Grandmom's chicken and dumplings. Thanksgiving orange jello with mandarin oranges. Quarter Pounder with cheese

What is your least favorite food?
Botarga caviar

What is your beverage of choice?
Miller Lite

What was the most spectacular meal you have ever had?
Every Thanksgiving meal growing up

What do you eat when you are home?
Chinese from around the corner

What is your best cooking tip for a home enthusiast?
Keep it simple -- if it doesn't work, try it again and watch what's happening. Then use your instincts.

Where and when did your career in food begin?
My 1st job was Riordan's, an Irish Pub in Annapolis, MD. I was the 'salad girl' and loved everything about the kitchen and service.

When did you decide you wanted to be a chef?
I was 28 when I figured it out. My boyfriend got a bread baking book for his birthday. I was unemployed, so I spent my time making bread. We did a lot of cooking then -- our day was planned around a meal that might not be ready until midnight or later. Then, when I started working again, my paychecks all went toward baking supplies.

If you didn't become a chef, what would you be?
A firefighter. Or, if it worked out, a stay-at-home mom

Who/what has shaped your cooking the most over the years?
Jimmy Sneed

What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?
I don't consider anything a secret weapon.

Which foreign country inspires your style most?
I would have said France a few years ago, but now, I feel like it comes from all over.

What is your favorite secret ingredient?
Sorry, no secrets.

What influences your cooking style and particularly the menu at Marigold?
The old-school southern family meal -- it was the focus of the whole week. It was a time to eat beautiful food and be together.

If I'm trying to watch my weight and I'm eating at your restaurant, what am I ordering to eat?
Fish is always a good option. And don't forget, it's all about moderation.

When you are not at your own restaurant, where are you eating?
Sunday's Best (bad-ass Jamaican) and Pho75.

What are some recent dining and culinary trends you have been observing?
I was taught to keep my head down and not worry about what's going on out there. Plus, I'm too busy to be super informed. Although I have heard that grits are appearing on a fair amount of menus lately!

What was the most challenging meal you had to make? Why?
None

What was your worst restaurant disaster?
There's a possibility of disaster every day. You just have to remember that nothing is the end of the world as long as your first thought is, "How can we make this work?"

What is the one rule or value you try to instill in all of your staff?
Work hard. Be proud of what you do. And definitely laugh -- that's a good day.