Carla Hall's Net Worth In 2024 Takes Her From 'Top Chef' to Top Dollar
Carla Hall attends theJames Beard Restaurant And Chef Awards at Lyric Opera Of Chicago on June 5, 2023.
Carla Hall's net worth in 2024 was hard-earned, beginning with jobs she hated before she landed in a kitchen—followed by ups and downs since becoming a Food Network star and daytime TV fixture.
"I needed, collectively, all the different things that I was doing, to do this," Hall told PEOPLE.
In February 2024, The Chew and Top Chef alum embarked on a new adventure with Chasing Flavor With Carla Hall, a six-episode series on Max that follows her around the world exploring the history of foods that are largely considered American—but didn't start there.
With a rollercoaster career that included everything from accounting, runway modeling and running her own restaurant, Hall always maintains a positive outlook (which is smart, considering she's doing better than 99.9% of people anyway).
"I’ve taken my knocks. You better believe I won't make the same mistakes twice," she said in a 2017 speech. "I'll be back—better, faster, tastier and stronger."
And she is! Find out how Carla Hall became a star and how much wealth she's amassed throughout her colorful career.
Related: Carla Hall's Chicken Meatloaf Balls
How did Carla Hall become famous?
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Born and raised in Nashville, Hall got an accounting degree from Howard University in 1986 and became a certified public accountant, working at PricewaterhouseCoopers (then Price Waterhouse) in Florida. As often happens, Hall realized the career she majored in was something she loathed.
In Hall's world, quitters actually do win. She told The New York Times that she believes when a career path is no longer serving you, bounce. "You got everything that you’re supposed to get out of that job and you're supposed to move on," she said.
She quit accounting, and thanks to her stunning good looks and 5'11" frame, became a runway model in Paris.
"People are probably wondering, 'How did Big Bird get on the runway?'" she joked in a 2011 interview. She said that modeling was a "wonderful experience," but that it was never her dream growing up. It did, however, lead her to her calling.
While in the City of Lights, she fell in love with food over Sunday meals with other Black models as they reflected on their families, traditions and recipes.
After two years of professional modeling, she moved to Washington, D.C., and began studying at L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Maryland. She worked as a chef in D.C. hotels and ran a catering company. When Hall's then-boyfriend (and now husband) Matthew Lyons began watching Top Chef, he encouraged Hall to apply for a spot on the Bravo cooking competition series.
Hall appeared on Top Chef for the first time in 2008, earning the nickname "Kooky Carla." While she didn't win the Top Chef title in Season 8, she became a fan favorite thanks to her soulful cooking and her catchphrase, "Hootie hoo!"
Hall's infectious personality earned her a spot on the panel of ABC's The Chew from 2011 to 2018. She's also a regular on Food Network. Hall now stars in her own series on Max, Chasing Flavor.
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What is Carla Hall's net worth in 2024?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Carla Hall's net worth in 2024 is estimated at a delicious $2.5 million.
How much does Carla Hall make?
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Hall's most recent income for Chasing Flavor is reportedly $100,000 for all six episodes, The New York Times reported. While on The Chew, Hall says she had to fight for the visibility and paydays that her male colleagues enjoyed, and she reportedly wasn't even able to negotiate her contract until the show's final season, when she more than doubled her salary to $950,000. That means she was making less than $425,000 per season before that.
Food Network
She's appeared on several TV shows, often as a judge on Food Network competitions, and serves as a co-host of Worst Cooks In America.
She co-hosted "Snack Chat" segments with Cookie Monster and Gonger on Sesame Street and voiced characters based on herself, including a star turn as Spaghetti Scientist Carla Hall on the criminally underrated BoJack Horseman.
She also hosted the podcast Say Yes! With Carla Hall, distributed by Wondery.
Much of Hall's money comes from endorsements, cookbooks and brand partnerships, which have included Frito-Lay, Hormel, Quaker Oats, McCormick spices and her own Sweet Heritage line of baked goods, cookware, bakeware and more that are available on QVC.
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Does Carla Hall own a restaurant?
Hall's pet project was her own eatery. After launching a Kickstarter to raise money for a restaurant in 2014 (and surpassing her $250,000 goal), Hall opened Carla Hall's Southern Kitchen in Brooklyn in June 2016.
The restaurant closed a year later. She said her fame was partly to blame for its failure, calling her notoriety a "blessing and a curse," according to Nation's Restaurant News.
"Being famous doesn't immediately guarantee success," she said. "Everyone thought that success was a foregone conclusion. It wasn't."
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What is Carla Hall doing now?
Max
Hall currently hosts Chasing Flavor With Carla Hall on Max and is still writing cookbooks and releasing tutorial videos on her YouTube channel. According to The New York Times, she's also writing a one-woman show on her fabulous life and is floating the idea of an HGTV show about remodeling her childhood house in Nashville.
Related: Carla Hall on Giving Back With the USO
Why did Carla Hall's restaurant close?
Hall said (via Eater) that there were several reasons Carla Hall's Southern Kitchen didn't survive. One of those was its location in Brooklyn, which she and her team chose because its rent was significantly lower than in Manhattan.
"My followers were from all over the country, so I was not able to capitalize on those numbers in our location in Brooklyn. If I was in an area [like Manhattan] where all the tourists go, if I was in a really busy space like Rockefeller Center or Times Square, I would have been able to capitalize on those followers," she explained. "We got it wrong. We weren't big enough or established enough to be a destination restaurant. It just wasn't gonna happen."
Other factors included being limited in what she could self-promote on The Chew, overstaffing, as well as focusing on expanding the eatery into a chain instead of making the first restaurant successful on its own. Another problem? Not having an operating partner.
"It was also difficult because maybe the concept looked good on paper, but the numbers didn't add up. And if somebody told us that, we just went to the next person," she said. "So, all my partners and I each found one large investor. They were all silent partners. [But] we needed somebody who understood the restaurant world. We needed an operating partner ... None of us had opened a restaurant before. We had worked in restaurants, but we hadn't opened one. And it's a totally different animal."
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What is Carla Hall's claim to fame?
Aside from Hall's kitchen prowess, she's also famous for her style (including her ever-changing colorful assortment of eyeglasses) and her cheerful, spiritual approach to cooking and life.
