Tara Montgomery

In 2008, Tara opened her carryout business, “Tara’s Southern Kitchen”. She created rich recipes from scratch drawing inspiration from the ones her grandmother had shared with her. She specialized in dishes that required frequent use of cast iron skillets. She also incorporated many unusual southern favorites like crackling, crispy fried tripe, , fried green tomatoes, corn bread, and southern crispy pickles. 

After four years, Tara decided to venture out into the food service industry. She worked for various food service companies, restaurants, and hotels. The experience was very humbling and enlightening. It was during this time that Tara fell even further in love with food and was transformed into a lifelong student of the food industry. 

While Tara had some great experiences, she was disheartened to learn that the industry was peppered with overzealous chefs similar to those featured on reality TV. 

They were antagonistic, egotistic, aggressive, and micromanagers with condescending behaviors. While this behavior is ultimately destructive to the industry, and new chefs, Tara firmly believes that things will change, for the better, one day. 

Tara’s mission is to revamp “Tara’s Southern Kitchen” in the near future. Her long-term dream is to travel the world; learning more about food from other cultures.