Special Feature
Back by popular demand, the Celebrate the Family Expo will welcome Alabama chefs and food bloggers to take the stage and share cooking tips and tricks on the Sweet Grown Alabama Celebrity Chef Stage hosted by Janice Rogers of WBRC-TV and JT of WERC Radio. With eight different chefs and food bloggers sharing some of their favorite tried and true recipes, you will not want to miss one minute! Here is a sneak peek at the incredible line up.
Schedule for the Sweet Grown Alabama Celebrity Chef Stage
At 10 a.m., learn from Katrina Adams of In the Kitchen with K-Marie. Adams is a celebrated food blogger, TV personality, cookbook author and Birmingham Christian Family (BCF) contributor known for her mouthwatering recipes and culinary creativity. Her journey began by watching her mother master the art of cooking with love and passion. This inspiration led Adams to start her own blog, www.kmariekitchen.com, where she shares her passion for food with a growing audience. Adams is also an ambassador for Sweet Grown Alabama! She brings her culinary expertise to the community by teaching cooking classes at libraries across Birmingham, Jefferson, and Shelby counties. Her award-winning cookie butter pie and lemon pound cake have become local favorites, available at Birmingham grocery stores and The Mercantile by Miller. For Adams, continuing her family’s culinary legacy is both an honor and a joy. She lives by the motto, “A recipe isn’t a contract, so don’t be afraid to create your own.”
Cayo Coco Restaurant’s Chef Chris Ippolito, Josh Schaff and Andrew Collins will take the stage together at 10:30 a.m. As an Alabama native, Chef Ippolito has an intimate understanding and knowledge of the great state’s diverse culinary landscape and his love for food started at a young age. As Executive Chef of Birmingham’s Cayo Coco, Chef Ippolito brings a farm-to-table approach to their New Caribbean cuisine and creates fun seasonal dishes that are familiar yet unique. Andrew Collins is the son of well-known Greek immigrant parents who helmed one of Birmingham’s most famous and oldest hot dog stands-Lyric Hot Dog and Grill which opened in 1957. In 2019, Collins teamed up with Josh Schaff to renovate a space in Founders Station on First Avenue North and opened Cayo Coco Restaurant inspired by Modern Caribbean cuisine in a vibrant tropical ambiance. Schaff has been published in several local, regional, and national publications and TV appearances teaching simple builds of classic drinks with fresh ingredients. His commitment to sustainability, education, and storytelling sets him apart as a true leader in the industry. Together, Chef Ippolito, Collins, and Schaff will make a delicious Caribbean dish and a non-alcoholic mocktail on the Sweet Grown Alabama Celebrity Chef Stage.
At 11 a.m., the Sweet Grown Alabama Celebrity Chef Stage will welcome Julie Kimbrough of The Meal Prep Mamacita. Kimbrough is a busy wife and momma of three who loves to prepare family meals as well as meal prep for her busy work days as a pharmacist. With over 10 years of meal prep experience, this busy momma tries to make sure she has healthy and nutritious meals prepped and ready. During pharmacy school, she was able to prep her meals and had so many people ask about the recipes. Just a couple years ago, she decided to pursue a dream to provide her recipes to help others, especially busy mommas, fuel their bodies with flavorful preps by creating, The Meal Prep Mamacita. At first, she believed most people may not care about food pictures posted, but quickly realized people actually loved the pictures and recipes! With over 60 thousand followers on Instagram as well as many other followers on her other social media platforms, Kimbrough has been able to provide healthy and easy meal prep recipes to many. She is the author of, Meal Prep Made Easy, her very own cookbook with easy to follow meal prep recipes. When she isn’t busy running a pharmacy, she is enjoying cooking and spending time with her family.
Annie McDaniel of Miss Annie’s Home + Kitchen will be on the stage at 11:30 a.m. McDaniel has been known as “Miss Annie” for more than 20 years to local elementary school kids, where she dresses in costume and encourages a love of science. She stumbled upon a new career online where she teaches her followers simple and easy recipes that cater to busy working families. Alongside her husband Darryl, they have been documenting the renovation journey of their century-old home in Alabama.
At 12 p.m., author of Happiness is Homemade, Y’all, social media sensation, and BCF contributor Danna Standridge will be on the Sweet Grown Alabama Celebrity Chef Stage. Standridge shares family recipes and stories on her Facebook page and YouTube channel. What started as a way to uplift people and share southern recipes during the Covid pandemic has now grown to over 100,000 faithful followers on Facebook alone. According to Standridge, the opportunities that have come her way to minister to friends and strangers alike have truly been a Godsend. Standridge is also a 2024 Sweet Grown Alabama ambassador.
Catch Kathleen Phillips of Grits and Gouda on the stage at 12:30 p.m. Phillips is a cookbook author and digital publisher of her food blog www.GritsAndGouda.com and a BCF contributor. Drawing upon years of experience as a former test kitchen director (Oxmoor House-former cookbook publisher for Southern Living/Cooking Light), she develops all her Southern recipes with a shortcut and many with a pinch of gourmet. That’s where she gets the name Grits and Gouda. She incorporates fresh ingredients from her own garden as well as local, seasonal ingredients. Her love for local farmers led to her becoming one of the first Sweet Grown Alabama ambassadors. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest at Grits and Gouda and find her recipes in Birmingham Christian Family.
Martie Duncan is a cook, author, podcast host, and event producer who will be on the Sweet Grown Alabama Celebrity Chef Stage at 1 p.m. She represented home cooks everywhere as runner-up on Season 8 of Food Network’s long-running competition series, Food Network Star. She appears at food events across the US and makes guest appearances on television shows like Beat Bobby Flay and Guy’s Grocery Games. Her website, www.MartieDuncan.com, showcases easy recipes and fun ideas for affordable entertaining at home. Duncan is the author of four cookbooks; her latest one, Martie Duncan’s Sweet Home Alabama: Destinations & Dishes Worth The Trip is available in stores and online. She is working on her fifth book to commemorate the State of Alabama Tourism Department’s 2024 Year of Alabama Food campaign. Duncan hosted 60 episodes of the Homemade podcast for DotDash-Meredith Corporation with over 2 million downloads to date. Guests include chefs, entertainers, and musicians like Jacques Pepin, Guy Fieri, Rachael Ray, Patti LaBelle, Michael Symon, Aaron Sanchez, and the late Leslie Jordan.
Find even more exciting details about the 5th Annual Celebrate the Family Expo here!
