Carla Hall

“My mother always told me it’s my job to be happy, not rich,” says chef Carla Hall. “So that’s my mantra. I have to like what I do.” She does, and it shows. Hall, co-host of ABC’s The Chew, is inspiring home cooks all over the country with her trademark enthusiasm and clever but accessible recipes. “When I’m developing recipes, I think about how many pans they’ll require and where the ingredients for them can be purchased,” she says. The Nashville native and Top Chef alum is also setting an example with her ingenuity and entrepreneurialism: Thanks in part to funding she earned via a Kickstarter campaign, Hall is opening her first restaurant, Carla Hall’s Southern Cooking, in Brooklyn this fall; she’s also writing a third cookbook and launching a cookie shop out of New York City’s Gansevoort Market. The chef wants to reach as many people as she can, whether as a television personality, an author, a chef, or a volunteer. “I have a platform,” she says. “I want to use it to reach out and help people.”