The National Grocers Association has announced that celebrity chef Carla Hall will be the keynote speaker for the 2024 NGA Show, to be held March 10-12 at the Caesars Forum Convention Center in Las Vegas.
The opening keynote session is sponsored by The Kraft Heinz Co. The annual trade show and conference is being produced by NGA and Clarion Events.
After appearances on Bravo’s “Top Chef” and “Top Chef: All Stars,” Hall spent seven years co-hosting ABC’s Emmy-winning lifestyle series “The Chew.” She is featured on Food Network shows such as “Thanksgiving, Holiday and Halloween Baking Championships” and “Worst Cooks in America.” Her most recent cookbook, “Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration,” published in 2018, landed on annual “Best Cookbook” lists across the country and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
“We are thrilled to have Carla Hall, a dynamic entrepreneur, chef and female leader, as the 2024 NGA Show keynote speaker,” said Greg Ferrara, president and CEO.
“Carla’s tremendous positive energy, her love of food and her experiences pushing outside of her comfort zone to tackle her fears will resonate with NGA Show attendees and will be the perfect kickoff to another successful grocery industry gathering.”
Hall’s journey to becoming a chef has been a winding road. A graduate of Howard University’s business school, she worked as an accountant for two years before deciding to switch gears to work as a runway model. It was during that time, as she traveled her way through Europe for a few years, that she realized her deep-rooted passion for food could be her career path. Today, she is a trained chef who has worked in several professional restaurant kitchens in and around the Washington, D.C., area.
Hall’s other cookbooks are “Carla’s Comfort Food: Favorite Dishes from Around the World” and “Cooking with Love: Comfort Food that Hugs You.” In November 2021, she published her debut picture book, “Carla and the Christmas Cornbread,” a heartwarming tale loosely based on Hall’s childhood growing up in Nashville that celebrates family traditions, old and new, and also includes a child-friendly Christmas cornbread recipe.
The NGA Show has been the place where independent grocers gather for more than 40 years, connecting supermarket retailers and wholesalers, food manufacturers and service providers from around the world to share solutions and best practices that support and strengthen the independent supermarket channel. The NGA Show is produced and managed by Clarion Events as part of the Food & Beverage Group in partnership with the National Grocers Association.
Read more association news from The Shelby Report.
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