Lori Stewart, a Carrollton native, has advanced to the quarterfinals stage of Carla Hall’s Favorite Chef competition. Stewart is the owner and founder of True2Health, a company whose goal is to help individuals on their journey to health through food.
Stewart is a plant-based chef and nutritional health coach who specializes in food allergies. After years of food-related health issues, she wanted to be a resource to those with similar struggles. Through True2Health, she now offers allergy testing, nutritional coaching, and other similar services to help customers find their best health.
Stewart stumbled across the Favorite Chef competition through Facebook ads, with no intention of ever applying. She explained it took four times of the ad popping up on her feed for her to finally apply, figuring there was no harm in trying. After being accepted, it still took her another week to fill out her contestant profile for the competition. “I didn’t think I was going anywhere; I didn’t think anything was going to come from this.”
She never expected to even be accepted to the competition, much less to enter the quarterfinal round. Throughout the competition, participants have been divided into groups, with rounds of voting deciding who from each group will remain. Only the first-place competitors from every group entered into the quarterfinal round. These group-based rounds of voting will proceed until only one winner is left.
The winner of the competition will be featured in the Taste of Home magazine, get a chance to cook with Carla Hall on an episode of Chewed Up, and will receive twenty-five thousand dollars. If she wins, Stewart plans on using the money to further her culinary education and reinvest back into her company. Stewart explains that not only can the money and exposure from winning this contest help her meet her business goals, but it would also be a life-changing experience for her.
Since the start she said she has “only been riding the wave,” but she has been able to remain first in her group for almost the entire competition. “One day I dropped to second but went back to first place by that night.” She is deeply pleased and grateful for the community’s support throughout this competition, and is hopeful that it can take her to the end.
Voting for the quarterfinals has already begun and runs until the end of the month. You can vote for Lori Stewart using her competition profile link. Each person gets one free vote daily through their Facebook account. Additional votes can be bought, with profits going towards the James Beard Foundation.
See more here: https://favchef.com/2026/lori-stewart
