A lifelong passion for baking coupled with a love for local farmers markets and seasonal produce helped inspire one of this year’s award-winning recipes in the Neighborhood to Nation Recipe Contest.
Pastry Chef Carrie Hudson runs the bakery at West Egg Café, a neighborhood gem in Atlanta known for Southern comfort food in a modern, energetic environment. Located in the burgeoning Atlanta Westside community, West Egg has been offering all-day breakfast, lunch and weekend brunch since 2004.
When Carrie is not stocking the restaurant’s bakery counter with a plentiful supply of beautiful and delicious baked goods, the talented pastry chef loves to come up with new flavor combinations for her famous hand pies she first introduced at the Westside Provisions Farmers Market—a seasonal market that took place just outside the restaurant’s doorsteps and provided the perfect venue for Carrie to showcase her creativity and dream up new ways to use all of the fresh produce available at the market.
After noticing market-goers were seeking out more savory items, Carrie started to experiment with local produce like butternut squash in her pastries. This led to her Butternut Squash & Goat Cheese Turnover, which is the Recipe Winner in the Breakfast category in this year’s Neighborhood to Nation Recipe Contest. It combines thyme-seasoned squash and creamy goat cheese wrapped in Pillsbury™ Puff Pastry.
“It’s wonderful to see people looking for my work,” shared Carrie. “I love to make food that touches others and is special.”
Carrie credits her love of baking, and her deep appreciation for the special role that food plays in our lives, to her grandparents. She grew up in a small town in Southern Georgia and spent a lot of time with her grandparents, preparing big family dinners and baking nearly every day.
After her first job as a baker, she moved to Atlanta to attend The Art Institute of Atlanta for Culinary Arts and has been a baker and pastry chef ever since. Today, at West Egg she continues to delight in creating food that brings others joy.
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Address: 1100 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta Georgia 30318 Website: www.westeggcafe.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westeggcafe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westeggcafe/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/westeggcafe