The Popular Beverage Carla Hall Can't Stand

If you watch Food Network or are just familiar with the happenings in the culinary world, you probably recognize Carla Hall. The magnetic television show host is also a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, philanthropist, and podcast host. Needless to say, her days can be extremely busy. For many, an active schedule means starting the day with multiple cups of hot coffee. Not Carla. She told Harper's Bazaar, "The first thing I drink [in the morning] is water. I don't like coffee."

Hall occasionally enjoys a popular alternative to coffee — tea — but not in the early a.m. hours. "When I'm drinking tea, it's really to enjoy the beverage with a cookie or a sweet or something like that, but I don't have any caffeine in the morning. Surprise, surprise, because I know it probably seems like I drink a lot of caffeine, which I do not," Hall joked, referring to her energetic and bubbly personality. Her love of sweet things is no surprise to her fans, given the Food Network shows she appears in, which include "Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking" and several Baking Championship programs. To fuel her routine, Hall typically eats multiple small meals throughout the day. And, while she stays away from coffee as a beverage, she's been known to use it as a recipe ingredient. It usually doesn't make an appearance in Hall's favorite type of dessert, which happens to be pie.

For someone whose culinary forte is sweets (and soul food), Carla Hall clearly understands that desserts and coffee go hand-in-hand for many people, so she doesn't ignore java completely. In a baking video posted to Hall's Facebook, she heartily recommends her cinnamon swirl coffee cake with crumb topping as "the perfect quick accompaniment to your favorite hot or cold coffee and tea beverages." Hall doesn't have many recipes that include her least favorite morning beverage, but her Mexican coffee chocolate cookies include a cinnamon-flavored instant coffee; something she says, "brings richness to the chocolate."

A recipe that Hall calls a fan-favorite is her easy tiramisu cake, but it's unclear if she herself reaches for a slice, given her dislike of coffee. In any event, Hall's simplified version of the sweet inspired by the famous Italian dessert made with espresso and ladyfingers (use savoiardi-style ladyfingers for the most traditional tiramisu) calls for store-bought yellow cake, coffee Marsala syrup made with leftover coffee, and cream cheese frosting, which looks like a cinch to pull off. Although she doesn't like to drink coffee, Hall has a good idea of how to make it shine in desserts.