Winner of Your Best Spring Vegetable Recipe

Congratulations to CRS, whose Shaved Asparagus and Mint Salad won this week's contest for Your Best Spring Vegetable Recipe, earning her a handsome Proteak End-Grain Round Cutting Board from Williams-Sonoma, plus big prizes from Viking, OXO and Tiny Prints, and a spot in the next food52 cookbook!

Q&A with CRS

• Describe an early food experience that has influenced the way you think about food and/or cooking. 
• Back in junior high, I used to watch Bobby Flay's first cooking show -- this was before he was on the Food Network and there weren't many cooking shows. I used to watch and try to recreate some of his dishes, but I didn't do the food shopping as a kid, so I had to improvise with what I found. I think that's why I feel so comfortable making up recipes with what I have on hand and what looks good in the store that week. I used to make pizzas and my favorite dish was penne alla vodka.

• What's your least favorite food?
• It's a three-way tie: cream cheese, sour cream, and mayo. I hate all white condiments. 

• What is the best thing you've made so far this year?
• This is a hard one, but I think I would have to go with the carbonara I made a few months ago. Although I did make a pretty killer mushroom lasagna too...

• Describe your most spectacular kitchen disaster.
• I was trying to make the no-knead bread recipe from Sullivan Street Bakery that was published in the New York Times. I don't know what went wrong, but I left it under a towel to rise while I went out for a few hours, and when I came back it had risen so much that it was dripping off the counter into a big pile on the floor. I mean, it was EVERYWHERE.

• What is your idea of comfort food?
• Pasta. And cheese. I guess I'd have to go with spaghetti and meatballs with parmesan on top. Nothing's better than that. Although, maybe a nice Cacio e Pepe in Rome...

• Apron or no apron?
• Sometimes. I get made fun of when I wear my apron because it has a giant octopus on it. 

• What's your favorite food-related scene in a movie?
• In Chocolat, when Julliette Binoche finds the mayor in her store, covered in chocolate. 

• If you could make a show-stopping dinner for one person, living or dead, who would it be?
• I think I would have to go with Mario Batali because I think it would be a learning experience (plus a lot of fun). Although only if Joe Bastianich brings the wine.

• You prefer to cook: a. alone, b. with others, c. it depends on your mood
• b.

• When it comes to tidying up, you usually: a. clean as you cook, b. do all the dishes once you've finished cooking, c. leave the kitchen a shambles for your spouse/roommate/kids to clean.
• Eh, I'd probably have to go with all three.

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• Some of CRS's favorite ingredients; The lovely Proteak End-Grain Round Cutting Board she's won from Williams-Sonoma!