Bon appétit!
the evolution of
BY A U D R E Y J O H N S O N | PH OTO S BY B E A U T I F U L E X C H A N G E P H O T O G R A P H Y
elsey Barnard Clark may have burst onto the culinary scene as the winner of Bravo’s Top Chef Season 16, but to put her in a box would be to thoroughly underestimate her abilities. Clark is what my friends and I refer to as a conscious creator: someone who is in tune with what she wants and inspired to take action. “I’m not just a chef,” Clark said to me on her back porch in Dothan, Alabama, last September. “I spend more time gardening than cooking.” The day started off hot—Alabama hot—as in sweltering. By afternoon, clouds moved overhead and brought a breeze with 32 | APRIL 2020
them to cool things down just enough for us to walk around the garden and sit for a spell on the covered back porch of Clark’s two-story Colonial Revival home in the town’s Garden District. It’s within walking distance of her downtown eatery, KBC.
