Culinary ambassador Carla Hall and executive chef Jerome Grant have crafted a wide-ranging (and delicious) menu at the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s cafe.

We love Carla Hall. (We’re a sucker for the “hootie hoo,” what can we say.) We also love the D.C. Central Kitchen. (We’re also a sucker for charities that aren’t afraid to stand up to bullies.) So it’s a good day when the two join forces: according to the charity’s blog, Hall has joined the Central Kitchen’s board of directors.

Top Chef All-Stars premieres at 10 p.m. tonight on Bravo. This season features top contestants from the show’s previous seasons squaring off for a second chance at becoming a Top Chef. Luckily for D.C., we’ve got the culinary chops to have three hometown toques competing in the competition: Carla Hall, Mike Isabella and the darling of the DCist commentariat himself, Spike Mendelsohn.

With the completion of Top Chef D.C. — you can relive our coverage of the entire season here — we’re all still rubbing our eyes a bit from malaise. Last night, Bravo announced that they’ve decided to go back and revisit some of our favorite contestants with Top Chef All Stars.

Local cheftestant Carla Hall’s bid to be named Top Chef in the hit TV show’s fifth season came to an end late Wednesday evening. Despite a rally through recent challenges, Carla faltered and Hosea—unexpectedly but convincingly—edged out a snooty Stefan for the win. DCist joined Carla, several dozen of her closest culinary partners and friends, and several students from the CulinAerie cooking class she taught just prior to the finale’s airing. Check out our gallery…

Carla Hall, the Howard accounting major turned model, turned chef, took a summer off from her Silver Spring catering company to compete as one of 17 cheftestants on season 5 of Bravo’s popular Top Chef. Hall has made D.C. proud, cooking her way into the final three. On the eve of part two of the season finale, Hall dished with us about her rising star, what a Top Chef season in D.C. might look…

Tune in to Bravo tonight at 10 p.m. to cheer on local Top Chef cheftestant Carla Hall and her ridiculously awesome hair. The show’s new season, which was filmed for the first time in New York, premieres tonight. And for those who can’t get enough, Good Stuff Eatery’s Spike Mendelsohn will be chatting about the premiere episode tomorrow on Washingtonian.com….

The next season of Top Chef, filmed this time in New York, is set to premiere on November 12, and this time we’ll have a hometown girl to cheer for. Carla Hall is chef-owner of Alchemy Caterers, and got her schooling at Bethesda’s L’Academie de Cuisine. Her bio states that her food is at the “heart and soul of the South and the refinement of her classic French training.” Let’s hope that she fares better…