Gold Hill

Her food travels have taken her to many different places, including NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon's kitchen as his personal chef.

Today, Susanne Dillingham runs the tiny chef from her small farm in Gold Hill and has shared her thoughts in a book, The Secret Ingredients of Life.

We learn more this hour on Charlotte Talks.

First, the news.

And somehow, along the way, she found an understanding of her hunger for belonging through food.

She learned a lot about that while working in a kitchen in Florence, Italy, where she discovered food can connect to memories and the true importance of hospitality.

But that was just the start of her culinary journey, one that has led her to establishing her own culinary brand, The Tiny Chef, which she now operates from her own farm in Gold Hill, North Carolina.

And it led her to writing a book about her identity, her search, her discovery of food as a language of belonging and building a life rooted in hospitality and home.