By Shabna Rahman
Salmah Hack, famous for her Guyanese cooking on Instagram, took her skills to Season 2 of PBS’s “The Great American Recipe”, where she delighted the judges with her traditional dishes, becoming one of three finalists in the competition.
Born and raised in Richmond Hill, Little Guyana in Queens, New York to Guyanese parents, Hack moved to Orlando, Florida after getting married in 2005. She was the first brown, Indo-Caribbean, Guyanese Muslim woman, who wore a hijab to participate in such a show.
The other two finalists were Brad Mahlof, a Lebanese Jewish-American (who won) and Leanna Pierre, a Barbadian-American. They also displayed dishes that kept their family traditions alive. As the overall winner, Mahlof had one of his dishes featured on the cover of “The Great American Recipe Cookbook”, which comprises 100 recipes from all of the contestants, highlighting the diversity and flavours of each dish.
