Haylie Duff is cooking her way across America
Haylie Duff is taking her love of food on the road — and making a stop in Texas.
The Houston native, and older sister to Hilary Duff, tries everything from queso to coffee to beer-batter-and-cheese-infused waffle sandwiches on “Haylie’s America,” premiering 9 p.m. Thursday on the Cooking Channel. She’ll visit Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York and Santa Barbara across eight half-hour episodes.
Duff has hosted “Real Girl’s Kitchen” on the same channel for two seasons. That show is based on her popular blog and cookbook. But Duff might be most familiar to fans via a series of Lifetime and Hallmark movies, and for playing snobby high-schooler Summer Wheatley in “Napoleon Dynamite.”
She was prompted to try something new after the birth of daughter Ryan in May 2015.
“I go through different phases of creativity and looking for inspiration with food. I think everyone was feeling like it was time to get outside of the kitchen a little bit and experience some new things and new foods and new people,” Duff says.
“This show was me getting to go back to work, in a way, and really gave me the opportunity to feel like myself again after having a baby. It’s all those wanderlust feelings that you have inside, just acted upon, I think. The show has some heart and some history of family and why people do the things they do and where they get inspiration.”
Thursday’s premiere finds her in Santa Barbara, where she tries the above-mentioned waffle sandwiches, brisket and whips up a chocolate and wine cupcake. She meets up with friends and family at every stop.
“We tried to pick places that felt authentic to my life and that I had real reasons to be there,” she says. “We went to Denver because the production company I work with is based out of Denver. I go to Texas to visit my best friend and my cousins. I went to New Orleans simply because if I’m in Texas, it’s a one-hour flight.
“I love New Orleans, I don’t wanna say as much as Texas, but pretty damn close.”
The Austin episode includes a trip to Round Top, where Duff and her squad hit up The Prairie by Rachel Ashwell, a renowned bed-and-breakfast. (Duff and Ashwell are neighbors in Malibu.)