A Jamaican is bidding to become Carla Hall’s next ‘Favorite Chef’.

Terry-Ann Reynolds, a specialist baker with a love for all things seafood, said she learned of the online competition through a friend on Instagram and decided to enter as a way of honouring her late mother who passed away in 2020.

The annual contest sees chefs from across the globe competing for US$25,000, a cover on the Taste of Home magazine, and an opportunity to cook with celebrity chef Carla Hall, who is a judge on the Food Network.

According to Reynolds, her passion for cooking was one she just couldn’t shake despite earning a bachelor’s degree in banking and finance.

“The passion was there from I was a teenager because when I was in high school, there was the option to choose Principles of Business or Food and Nutrition and I was really torn but I chose Principles of Business. And even after that, I was still thinking, I should have done cooking,” Reynolds said.

“Even though I went through to UWI and I did Banking and Finance, I was thinking no, I should have done cooking and I really want to open my own restaurant. But I thought that the desire would leave me because I didn’t think that it was something that I would actually pursue, I didn’t realise that it was my gift or my passion,” Reynolds added.

Pandemic the catalyst

Reynolds said it was during the coronavirus  pandemic that she was truly able to pursue her passion, noting that it was only then that local institutions started offering classes part-time and online.

“When I wanted to pursue it, I would have to keep my job in order to pay my bills and be able to maintain myself. So, I was always seeking out courses, but the courses that were offered were all full time. There was nothing part time until COVID happened,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds believes that her culinary skills were inherited from her mother, who was a pastry chef.

She explained that she was a surprise baby, born to her mother after the age of 40, when she had long hung up her apron. She said it was her older siblings who had the opportunity to indulge the delights of their mother’s baking prowess and she later made the connection.

Reynolds says each week until the end of the competition she’ll be giving Instagram users a chance to taste her cuisine.

“For the persons who rack in the most votes for me, they can win like a cake or get a pizza,” she said.

“So every week I make a cake and people have the opportunity to win. I make a really good cheesecake as well as chocolate cake,” she added.