Charlotte Chef Set To Compete In Food Network Challenge

A Charlotte chef is set to be a part of Food Network history when she makes her appearance on the hit cooking competition TV show Chopped.

Lisa Brooks, the executive chef and CEO of Heart and Soul Personal Chef Service, is making her Food Network debut as part of Chopped's first all-Black cast, WCNC reports. She will compete against fellow chefs to impress the judges using the skills she learned from her family as she grew up.

While Brooks has a culinary talent, she didn't start out in the industry. After leaving her corporate job more than a decade ago, she moved onto her next adventure and has been treating the Queen City to fantastic food ever since.

"In 2010, at the age of 40, I left that six-figure job, went to culinary school, and never looked back," she said, "started Heart and Soul Personal Chef Service, and really specialized in personal meal prep for clients. And then now it's really turned into a private dinner party catering businesses."

Brooks' appearance on Chopped will be a part of the show's history as it will be the first time since its debut that the entire cast, both judges and competitors, are Black.

"I didn't even realize that was the first time ever that that has done that," she said. "So I didn't even know until I was in it that it was a historic thing. But the chefs were amazing. We're all friends."

When it comes to hints about her time on the show, she isn't giving away any spoilers. To find out how she fared in the competition, you'll just have to tune in.

"To be featured on a national stage like this, particularly at Black History Month, it was just it's kind of a combination of everything I've done up until this point and my purpose, which is just preserve the legacy," she said. "Yeah, my mother and grandmother, great-grandmother are gone. And so, you know, I feel a burden or responsibility to carry on that legacy and carry on the Southern cooking traditions and to not let that art form get lost. And so it's just an honor obviously to be included, but it also feels like I'm stepping even further into my purpose."

The season premiere of Chopped will air at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, February 15, on Food Network.