Former Top Chef finalist Carla Hall spoke to Enstars about which contestants she was rooting for on the current season of Top Chef and what she learned from being on the show.

While Hall has been following Top Chef: New Orleans, she admitted she is still slightly unsure about which contestants will eventually shine. Regardless, she seems to have a few favorites and said the women on the show were "kicking butt."

"The girls are kicking it, Nina [Compton]'s doing really well," she said. "It's so great to see the girls doing well."

While she regrets the fact that Benny had to go home, she is now kind of pulling for Nina. She feels there are a few others who show promise but she hasn't watched enough of the season to get their names right.

"At this point I don't know anybody's name," she said. "So right now I am like, the girl with the short haircut and the little brown hair."

Hall participated in the fifth and eighth seasons of Top Chef, and was a finalist both times. Having been through the drill twice, Hall has learned a lot on the show. While giving advice for the current contestants and aspirants, she spoke about what she took away from her experience on Top Chef.

"I went into Top Chef not really knowing who I was as a chef, when I came out people are like "Oh, you're the chef who makes all that southern food, you're the chef who does all of the desserts," and I am like, 'Really?' " she said.

The viewers helped her finally find her own as a chef.

"I realized who I am and that it's okay to be me and to serve the food that I serve, that's why I love this comfort food and I love these casseroles and love mashed potatoes," she said.

Hall prepared an upside down turkey casserole dish while talking to Enstars and used it as an example to further explain her style of cooking.

Chew Host & Top Chef Finalist Carla Hall Recipes for Thanksgiving Holiday.

"It reminds me of going to a diner and having an open faced turkey sandwich, and I love that I like to take traditional dishes and put a spin on it. I embrace it, I think that when you go through something like Top Chef, you can either fight who you are or go with the flow and learn something about yourself and for me, it's tenacity," she said.

Hall also cited another very interesting instance where she posted that she liked "canned cranberry sauce" on Twitter and was kind of snubbed by a fan, who also looped in Top Chef founder and judge, Tom Colicchio, writing "Tom, can you believe it? Carla likes canned cranberry sauce!"

"Like Tom is going to beat me up, but I do, I love the familiarity and the food memory of the canned cranberry sauce that is still on my table but I do make a fresh cranberry sauce," Hall said. "So I have the tradition, which is the food memory I have to have, and sensory, I have to be in the kitchen when it comes out of the can and then I have one where I will put ginger or maybe oranges and have it really fresh, and put onions and port wine, and it's delicious but I have them both."

Other than co-hosting The Chew, Hall has other projects in the pipeline. She is working on a new cookbook, due out oi April 1 2014 and tentatively titled Carla's Comfort Foods of the World. 

With the book, Hall hopes "to show that the techniques maybe different, the spice blends may be different, but as people we are very similar and our differences are so small that we should embrace each other and get to know each other and travel through spices."

Hall is also working on her line of "petite cookies," which are about the size of sugar cubes and are all about "small bite and big flavor."

Tags: Top Chef top chef season 11 carla hall