When Kelsey Barnard Clark won the sixteenth season of "Top Chef," set in Kentucky, she clinched victory with a dish that defied fine dining expectations: cornbread and buttermilk with crawfish, boiled peanuts, cucumber and watermelon.
She still references it as one of her proudest dishes from the show, telling me, "This was based on a very old-school Southern dish, and I didn’t know if it would resonate with the judges. It’s a very humble, simple dish and I truly believe that’s why I won."
