Winner of Your Best Recipe with Honey

Congratulations to Alexandra Higgins, whose Fried Goat Cheese with Honey and Black Pepper won the contest for Your Best Recipe with Honey!

Describe an early food experience that has influenced the way you think about food and/or cooking.
My mom is a wonderful cook and when I was growing up, she taught me not to order anything from a restaurant that I felt I could make at home. I do love that rule at times, but since I've begun doing marketing for restaurants, I also love the idea of making restaurant-quality recipes accessible to everyone. I want people to love dining in and out as much as I do, and I feel so lucky to have made a career out of it. Going against that rule of my mother's has sparked ideas like encouraging our chefs to make some tried-and-true favorites (like the goat cheese balls at Ecco) available to anyone who wants to give them a shot at home.

What's your least favorite kitchen task? 
Some of my most serious fights with my boyfriend are over who will clean our griddle, crockpot, or spiralizer. 

  

Your favorite kitchen tool? 
A glass of pinot noir. 

What is your idea of comfort food?
I believe a perfectly-executed cheeseburger can cure just about anything. Fries and a loaded baked potato don't hurt either.

  

What is your greatest kitchen disaster?
I'm incredibly clumsy and accident-prone, which makes for a lot of kitchen disaster stories. However, the two-inch scar on my hand would insist that the greatest is when I tried to pull some toast out of the oven with my bare hands. I think I got four pairs of oven mitts for the Christmas after that one. 

First photo by Bobbi Lin, third photo by Ashley Rodriguez, all others by James Ransom