We learned a little bit more about Valerie Erwin, the chef of Geechee Girl Rice Cafe, after we talked to her this week.

The Princeton grad learned to cook from her father. Here, she dishes on her cooking history, her tips for home cooks and why fried chicken served with potato salad just might be her favorite food combination.

Age: 58

Years in Industry: 30 

Earliest Cooking Memory: "My next door neighbor's mother had gone to the hospital to have her baby. It was August. We were eight or nine years old. I got dinner started for them. I remember telling my father that my neighbor asked me me how to make gravy, and he replied, 'So, did you tell her?' and I said, 'Yeah.' I don't remember learning how to make gravy but my dad knew that I knew how to make it.

First Kitchen Job: Prep cook at The Commissary.

Favorite Thing to Cook: "Whatever I feel like eating depending on how much time and groceries I have ... roast chicken is good."

Favorite Local Restaurant: "I don't get to go out that much but the place I'd go to if I had more time is Osteria in Philadelphia.

Favorite Restaurant Anywhere: "Blue Ribbon in New York City. The bone marrow is great there."

Guilty Pleasure: Pecan Turtles

Advice for Home Cooks: "I would say find a cookbook, (chef) or writer that you trust.

"I had a cook who was making this recipe in the summer, a stew ... and it had some strange instructions. And I asked her who wrote the recipe, and she said, 'Marcus Samuelsson (the award-winning chef of Red Rooster in NYC, C-house in Chicago and Marc Burger in Costa Mesa and Chicago).'  I said, 'Keep going, he knows what he's talking about.'"

Biggest Kitchen Disaster: "One time at a restaurant I was baking ... I had a 12 or 20 quart bin of custard in the walk-in (refrigerator). A ham fell into the open container of custard from the top shelf and custard jumped everywhere. I remember cleaning custard off of every surface of that walk-in."

Last Meal on Earth: "Probably fried chicken and potato salad."