DAMARIS PHILLIPS
Celebrity chef on Food Network
An unrelenting advocate for Southern cooking, Damaris Phillips has inspired countless aspiring cooks as a culinary artist and Food Network star.
Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, in a large family, Phillips understood the value of hard work from an early age. One of her main responsibilities in her big household was to make food for her family. As she learned how to cook, she would develop a culinary profile inspired by her roots in different places in the South. She credits Louisville, Northern Georgia and West Virginia as the places that helped shape her cooking.
Before she would become a household name for her work on the Food Network, Phillips worked in a number of positions across Louisville. According to a Food Network bio, she considered a number of other careers such as writing, communication, advertising, and even nursing before she realized her future as a chef.
Eventually, she would realize her future was tied to her talents in the kitchen. She went to culinary school and subsequently landed the career-making internship opportunity at 610 Magnolia under Chef Edward Lee. In her first experience as a professional cook, she had to learn the new pace of a high-octane, fine-dining atmosphere.
To prepare herself for a career in cooking, she completed culinary school at Jefferson Community and Technical College. Inspired by what this educational opportunity had on her cooking, she decided to lead a classroom of her own and began teaching at Jefferson County Community and Technical College.
In 2013, she took her talents to television. She competed and eventually won the ninth season of Food Network Star, which rewarded her with a fresh space on their network schedule. Her show Southern at Heart would go on to run for 5 seasons between 2013 and 2016. During this time, Phillips would generate a dedicated fanbase that celebrated her unique take on traditional Southern cuisine. She has since starred on the shows The Bobby and Damaris Show and Southern and Hungry. In 2019, she published her first cookbook, Southern Girl Meets Vegetarian Boy: Down Home Classics for Vegetarians (And the Meat Eaters Who Love Them).
In March 2020, Damaris Phillips hosted the Kentucky to the World Program: The Future of Food Is Female, which featured a conversation among Phillips, Nikkia Rhodes, Samantha Fore and Kristen Smith.
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