40 Fun Facts About Cat Cora

Which famous television chef, met at a book reading in Natchez, advised Cat Cora to apply to culinary school?

Julia Child also warned Cora that professional kitchens were a man's world and that she would need to be strong, stubborn and persistent. Cora had driven two hours to meet her.

Cat Cora won Fox's dance contest The Real Dirty Dancing in 2022 alongside which High School Musical actor?

Corbin Bleu and Cora were announced as the winners after a finale against Tyler Cameron and Anjelah Johnson-Reyes. Stephen 'tWitch' Boss hosted the four-part series.

Cat Cora lent her voice and likeness to a 2008 Iron Chef America video game for the Nintendo DS and which console?

Wii owners got Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine a week after the handheld version. Players could either cook as Cora or compete against her.

Kouzzina by Cat Cora, named for the Greek word for kitchen, operated until 2014 at which Florida resort?

Walt Disney World opened Kouzzina at its BoardWalk in August 2009, in the space that had held Spoodles. The menu featured recipes handed down in Cora's family.

Cat Cora's Ocean Restaurant opened in 2013 inside what was then the world's largest aquarium, in which country?

Singapore's S.E.A. Aquarium, on the resort island of Sentosa, held nearly 45 million liters of water when it opened in 2012.

Cat Cora founded Chefs for Humanity, a charity that fights hunger worldwide, in response to which disaster?

The Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 moved Cora to co-found the group weeks later, in January 2005. It rallies chefs to raise money for emergency food relief and nutrition education.

Cat Cora returned to her Mississippi hometown in 2006 as grand marshal of a parade held for which holiday?

St. Patrick's Day is marked there with the Hal and Mal's St. Paddy's Parade, which Cora led in March 2006, a year after her Iron Chef debut.

As a girl who hosted tea parties, Cat Cora treated her family to food made with which toy?

Easy-Bake Oven baking came naturally in a family where her father and grandfather both ran restaurants. She credits her grandmother Alma with helping teach her to cook.

Cat Cora joined Chefs Move to Schools, a campaign pairing chefs with schools, at the side of which First Lady?

Michelle Obama's campaign sent professional chefs into schools nationwide to offer nutrition guidance, and Cora joined it in June 2010.

Cat Cora, adopted as a baby, grew up in the tight-knit Greek community of which Mississippi city?

Jackson's Greek families shaped her cooking: meals at home mixed Southern spices with fresh cheeses and home-cured olives sent by relatives overseas.

Cat Cora's Greek grandparents emigrated from which Aegean island, where the film Mamma Mia! was later shot?

Skopelos, in the Northern Sporades, was the home island of both her father's parents. He was born in Greenville, Mississippi, where he helped out at his own father's Coney Island Café.

After a science degree, Cat Cora trained at which cooking school in Hyde Park, New York?

The Culinary Institute of America began in 1946 as a New Haven school for returning World War II veterans and later moved its main campus to Hyde Park. Cora graduated in 1995.

Before turning to cooking, Cat Cora earned a University of Southern Mississippi degree in biology and which subject?

Exercise physiology and biology made up her Bachelor of Science, a grounding that suits a chef who also presents herself as a health and fitness expert.

At 15, Cat Cora presented her father and grandfather, both restaurateurs, with which ambitious document?

A business plan for a restaurant of her own was the teenager's pitch. She took it to the two men because she knew they could help her.

Cat Cora finished her training with apprenticeships under chefs Georges Blanc and Roger Vergé in which country?

France was where Cora finished her training, apprenticing with Georges Blanc in Vonnas and with Roger Vergé before she went back to New York to work as a sous-chef.

Cat Cora moved west to become chef de cuisine at Bistro Don Giovanni in which California wine region?

Napa Valley became her base after she had worked as a sous-chef under Melissa Kelly at a restaurant in Old Chatham, New York.

Which chef co-hosted Food Network's Melting Pot with Cat Cora when she made her television debut in 1999?

Rocco DiSpirito shared the hosting with Cora, who went on to front the Greece episode of My Country, My Kitchen in 2001.

Cat Cora made her Iron Chef America debut in 2005 in a battle built around which secret ingredient?

Potato was the theme when Cora first stepped into Kitchen Stadium, in the last listed episode of the opening season. She became the first woman to hold the rank of Iron Chef.

Which Australian chef co-hosted both Around the World in 80 Plates and My Kitchen Rules with Cat Cora?

Curtis Stone and Cora led twelve chefs on a race through ten countries for Bravo in 2012, then judged celebrity dinner parties together for Fox in 2017.

Which Japanese Iron Chef teamed with Cat Cora in the 2008 Thanksgiving Showdown on Iron Chef America?

Masaharu Morimoto and Cora lost by a single point to Bobby Flay's team in the first battle to set the American Iron Chefs against each other.

Which Southern cooking star partnered Cat Cora to win Iron Chef America's All Star Holiday Dessert Battle in 2007?

Paula Deen and Cora won with sugar as the secret ingredient, beating a rival pair of Food Network chefs that included Tyler Florence.

Cat Cora helped judge the 2007 final of The Next Iron Chef, won by which future co-host of The Chew?

Michael Symon was declared the winner after a swordfish battle in Kitchen Stadium and joined Iron Chef America as a result. Cora tasted the dishes alongside two fellow Iron Chefs.

Which future Chopped judge lost to Cat Cora in a 2007 Farmers' Market battle on Iron Chef America?

Alex Guarnaschelli lost that challenge but came back to the show as a judge, and in 2012 she won The Next Iron Chef: Redemption to become an Iron Chef herself.

Which winner of Top Chef: All-Stars has worked as one of Cat Cora's sous-chefs on Iron Chef America?

Richard Blais served on Cora's Kitchen Stadium team as a sous-chef. He was runner-up on Top Chef's fourth season and won the All-Stars edition in 2011.

Which Top Chef winner narrowly beat Cat Cora when she competed in Guy Fieri's Tournament of Champions in 2021?

Michael Voltaggio, winner of Top Chef's sixth season, outscored Cora 95 to 90 in the first round. She later returned to the tournament as a judge.

Cat Cora judged ABC's Family Food Fight in 2019 beside Graham Elliot and which host, the wife of an NBA star?

Ayesha Curry hosted, judged and executive-produced the series, in which eight American families cooked against each other for a $100,000 prize.

Cat Cora was elected Base Commander on which 2023 Fox reality series, filmed in the Australian outback?

Stars on Mars housed its celebrities in a mock Martian base at Coober Pedy. Cora arrived in the fifth episode and later led a mission to connect solar panels.

Which sitcom dad hosted NBC's Celebrity Cooking Showdown, where Cat Cora coached celebrity cooks in 2006?

Alan Thicke, the father in Growing Pains, presented the miniseries, in which Cora, Wolfgang Puck and Govind Armstrong each coached celebrity pupils.

Which dip did Cat Cora launch under her own name at H-E-B grocery stores in Texas in 2014?

Hummus joined a list of Cora products that already included a cookware line and an iPad cooking app.

Cat Cora's Kitchen, a tapas and cocktail lounge launched in San Francisco in 2011, was designed for which kind of place?

Airports in San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta and Salt Lake City have all hosted a Cat Cora's Kitchen; the first opened in Terminal 2 at San Francisco International in April 2011.

In Cat Cora's picture book A Suitcase Surprise for Mommy, what does young Zoran finally choose for his mother to pack?

A drawing he made at school wins out after a favorite truck proves too big and a remote-controlled robot too noisy. The 2011 picture book was Cora's first for children.

Which food magazine gave Cat Cora its Teacher of the Year award in 2006 and named her its executive chef?

Bon Appétit made both announcements in November 2006, and Cora has called the teaching award the greatest recognition she could achieve as a chef.

Cat Cora, adopted at one week old, was born with which different first name?

Melanie was the name she was born with in April 1967. The couple who adopted her, Virginia Lee and Spiro Cora, raised her as Catherine Ann.

Fortune magazine noted that Cat Cora once turned down a job offer from which chef behind New York's Per Se?

Thomas Keller's offer was one she declined on a path that also took her through famously male-dominated kitchens in Europe before television.

Which British-born television chef partnered Cat Cora in Battle Deep Freeze on Iron Chef America in 2011?

Robert Irvine and Cora lost to Anne Burrell's team in a special with no single secret ingredient: each of five dishes needed a frozen component and came with ice carvings.

Cat Cora's Olilo and Wicked Eats dining brands were launched in partnership with which food-service giant?

Aramark has run the partnership since 2016, bringing her food to workplaces, universities, hospitals and sports stadiums.

Cat Cora traveled with Save the Children in 2012 to draw attention to child hunger in which African country?

Ethiopia was the destination in February 2012, when Cora visited Save the Children programs tackling chronic malnutrition, a side of the hunger crisis that rarely makes headlines.

Cat Cora says Chefs for Humanity, her hunger-relief charity, was modeled on which international aid group?

Doctors Without Borders was the template: Cora's non-profit gathers the culinary community to raise funds and provide resources for emergency, educational and hunger-related causes.

Which United Nations agency named Cat Cora a nutritional spokesperson to raise awareness of humanitarian crises?

UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, asked her to help draw attention to emergencies around the world in recognition of her hunger-relief work.

CCQ, the restaurant Cat Cora opened in Costa Mesa, California, in 2008, was a partnership with which department store?

Macy's housed CCQ, short for Cat Cora's Que, at its South Coast Plaza store. Cora also joined the retailer's Culinary Council alongside chefs such as Rick Bayless.