It is not a recipe she would recommend, but Fanny Slater mixed one part alcohol, one part low self esteem, a dash of fame, and a sprinkle of insecurity, and ultimately found herself spiraling down a tunnel headed straight for rock bottom. Luckily Fanny also had a heap of support and love from friends and family which helped her when she needed it most. This is a story about reinvention from the winner of a cooking contest on the Rachel Ray show to an aspiring sobriety mentor. Hers is a story about finding herself, after almost losing everything.

Bio:

Fanny Slater has food flowing through her genes. Her mom founded the nationally acclaimed bakery business Rachel’s Brownies in 1975, and together—her parents created an enormously successful corporation that would live on for decades. Fanny grew up in Raleigh where, at age four, she began her home-taught kitchen apprenticeship when her dad pulled up a chair next to the stove and handed her a spatula. She worked in restaurants and prep kitchens to receive culinary exposure, but was equally drawn to performing arts. At twenty-five, Fanny moved to Hollywood, California to pursue acting and improv training with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. Several years later, she followed her stomach back to the east coast to open her own catering company. She moved to Wilmington, North Carolina in 2012.

In 2014, she beat out nearly 1,000 other hopefuls from across the country who entered Rachael Ray’s Great American Cookbook Competition. Fanny won the grand prize of a publishing contract under Rachael’s imprint, and Simon & Schuster published her cookbook, Orange, Lavender & Figs: Deliciously Different Recipes from a Passionate Eater, in 2016. In the following years, Fanny co-hosted the Food Network series, Kitchen Sink and became a regular on Cooking Channel’s longtime popular series, Best Thing I Ever Ate.

In 2020, Fanny was living in Illinois with her husband when her longtime issues with alcohol came to a head. Within one year, she would move back to North Carolina, get a divorce, come out of the closet, and attend a 40-day rehab program. Today, Fanny is 3+ years sober and living near the beach in Wilmington with her girlfriend, two dogs, and a cat. She works as a food and beverage writer specializing in recipe development, food photography, and content creation for social media. As of recent, Fanny has pivoted her focus towards being a sobriety enthusiast who encourages others to speak up about their struggles. She uses her Instagram platform @fannyslater to bluntly share her journey of going from a self-destructive addict to an advocate for mental health, recovery, and self-love.