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NATCHEZ — As of Tuesday, Natchez chef Brint Anderson was holding the No. 2 spot of his group in a global online competition among chefs competing for a $50,000 grand prize.

Should he win, Anderson said he hopes to have a small bakery in Natchez. However, he needs votes to make it.

Favorite Chef is an exclusively online contest in which anyone can vote for their favorite chef to win. The winning chef will receive the prize money plus $15,000 worth of kitchen supplies and a two-page advertising spread in Bon Appétit announcing the winner.

To vote once is free while additional votes can be cast with a donation to Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks dedicated to fighting domestic hunger.

Anderson, a Natchez native, said he entered the contest a little over a month ago.

“To enter, you put all of your information in your profile and upload pictures. I posted pictures of dishes I created,” he said.

Anderson said the 1,000 or more chefs entering the competition were split into two groups. The chefs with the most votes out of each group will advance to another round of voting before a winner is announced.

The first round of voting ends at 8 p.m. Thursday, he said.

Anderson said his cooking inspiration comes from his mother, Kitty Koerber, who was popular among the locals for her dinner parties and was pictured in The Natchez Democrat in the 1960s winning a nice pair of pumps for her curry chicken.

“She was great at a lot of country-style dishes like pecan pie. … Everyone loved her Swedish meatballs,” Anderson said.

Anderson moved to New Orleans in 1992 to “hang with the big dogs” of the culinary arts, he said. While studying at Delgado Culinary Arts school in New Orleans, he got a job working for chef Ralph Brennan and learned his chair of Cajun-style dishes at a number of New Orleans restaurants.

He later returned to Natchez to run a food truck and also baked bread and hamburger buns for The Camp restaurant on Silver Street. He was most recently hired as a pastry chef for Church Hill Variety.

“I enjoying baking because I have to focus so much,” he said. “If you miss one step, the whole thing goes flop. I also like mathematics and baking involves a lot of measurements.”

To vote for Anderson as Favorite Chef, visit favchef.com/2021/brint-anderson.