Following their victory in last week’s edition of the Food Network program Family Recipe Showdown, which was hosted by Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer, Little Rock native Legenia Spiller-Bearden and her aunt Cynthia Goodman were awarded $10,000.
Set in New Orleans, the culinary competition show focuses on Southern food. Edgar Dook Chase, the senior chef and restaurateur of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans, co-hosts Spencer’s show. Three teams of family pairs compete to make some of the presenters’ favorite Southern foods in each episode, which also has a celebrity guest judge.
Spiller-Bearden is the originator of the food content and recipes for the brand Sincerely Legenia in addition to being an acting instructor.Recipes, cooking tutorials, and a range of keto spice mixes are all available on her website. In addition, she is the creator and head of the Bearden Production Center for the Arts in North Little Rock. Since 2006, the nonprofit has given numerous Arkansas families access to reasonably priced arts instruction in acting, dance, culinary arts, and visual arts, according to a press release.
On television, Spiller-Bearden and Goodman had a lot of chemistry and seemed ready for their own culinary show spin-off.
The two prepared meals for Spencer as well as Tina Knowles, the author of Matriarch and the mother of Beyonc and Solange Knowles, who was a guest judge.
The first task for the competitors was to use cast iron skillets to prepare a trademark main dish and dessert. After editing this piece, Arkansas Timesprint editor and crisp lover Daniel Grear will definitely want the Cajun-inspired skillet Spiller-Bearden and Goodman made with crab meat, shrimp, and crawfish, as well as the apple crisp dessert with whipped cream and a bourbon caramel sauce.
Spiller-Bearden and Goodman were tasked with making chicken and dumplings, one of Spencer’s favorite childhood dishes, after they made it through the elimination round. Their rivals, twin brothers Zach and Jeremiah Ortner, were tasked with making jambalaya, one of Knowles’ favorite family dishes.
Goodman and Spiller-Bearden took the decision to create a variation of the Southern dumpling, which is usually made with dough made of flour.
“You had to stretch things out growing up in a big family in the South,” Goodman told the judges.
According to Spiller-Bearden, I recall my mother and them telling me that my grandmother frequently used cornmeal in place of flour when she didn’t have any. I therefore prepared a handmade cream of chicken soup here, along with a delectable cornbread dumpling with buttermilk and sage.
Additionally, their rivals made a kind of jambalaya using pasta instead of rice.
For not playing it safe, both teams received praise.
Spiller-Bearden and Goodman’s supper was praised by Chase as both inventive and excellent. Knowles appeared very impressed.
In an email to the Arkansas Times, Spiller-Bearden stated, “I’m so proud to share this moment with my community. Representing Little Rock on a national stage and winning the top prize was an incredible honor.”
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