Hey y'all, welcome to Biscuits and Jam from Southern Living. I'm your host, Sid Evans.

And today I'm talking to a chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author who left her small southern

city for a career in Manhattan, and then she ultimately came back home. Kelsey Barnard Clark was raised in Dothan,

Alabama, which is a short drive from the Gulf Coast, but it wasn't until she spent several years

living in fast-paced New York City and working in the even faster-paced kitchens of Michelin-Star

restaurants that she truly appreciated her hometown. Since she moved back to

Dothan in 2012, she's been busy. She opened a catering company and a couple of restaurants,

including KBC, a James Beard Award semi-finalist this year. She won season 16 of Bravo's top

chef, becoming the first Southerner to ever win the show,

and she's done more than her part to revitalize downtown Dothan. If that weren't enough,

she's also found time to write a couple of cookbooks, and her latest is called Southern Gettogethers,

a guide to hosting unforgettable gatherings.

We'll talk about all that, plus her cooking tips for tailgate season, the former boss who inspired her to be an entrepreneur, and her recipe for shortbread,

crumble banana pudding, all in this week's Biscuits and Jam.

Music this week's Biscuits and Jam. Kelsey, Barnard Clark, welcome to Biscuits and Jam.

Hey. Hi. I'm so happy to be here. I'm a huge fan of this podcast. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Well, it's great to have you on. Good to see you again. It's been way too long, actually. So tell me where I'm reaching you right now. I am actually at home home. So Dothan, Alabama, in my house. I just was on a stint for a show for a month, so I was actually in New York,

so it's nice to be home for a little while. Yeah, I'm sure the travel gets to be a lot,

because I know you're on the road quite a bit, and either filming or now you've got a book tour coming up, so it must be nice to be at home.

It is.

I love traveling, and I mean that truly, I think especially more so as a mom with young kids,

it's kind of amazing to be able to not escape your life, but certainly get these little pockets of just like a different atmosphere.

But the hardest part to me is

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