This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

On TV, Carla Hall is known for her quirky, energetic personality.

But in some ways she’s very different today from the woman who first appeared as a contestant on Top Chef more than a decade ago.

"I didn't want to show up as my blackness if it wasn't going to be accepted," The Chew co-host says of her first foray into food media.

When Carla started her career, she turned her back on the food she grew up with. Her journey back included false starts, U-turns, and a mail truck full of sandwiches. 

And her new cookbook, Carla Hall's Soul Food, is not like anything she’s ever done before.

"I didn't want that joyful book, I wanted all of it," she says. "I want to show people that there's a lot of pain in [soul food], in this culture."

This week on The Sporkful, we'll hear all about how Carla got to this point. Listen in to the episode for the full conversation.

Interstitial music in this episode by Black Label Music:

- "Sun So Sunny" by Calvin Dashielle

- "Mouse Song Light" by Ken Brahmstedt

- "Hang Tight" by Hayley Briasco

-"Comin For A Change" by Stephen Sullivan

- "Legend" by Erick Anderson

Photos: Courtesy of Harper Collins