Lara Lyn Carter takes home Emmy

ALBANY — As last weekend’s Southeast Emmy Awards presentation at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead wore on and the presenters got ever-closer to announcing the award for Best On-Camera Talent, a twinge of nervousness began to grow inside local culinary artist Lara Lyn Carter, who’s show “Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter” was up for four awards that night.

“I was as nervous as I could be, but I don’t really think it hits you until it comes down to the last few seconds before they make that announcement,” Carter said during an interview Monday with her newly-claimed Emmy sitting prominently on a bookcase. “I was following along with the program, and I remember looking over at (husband) Chris (Carter) and going, ‘There’s three more until my category.’”

Carter said the rush of nerves caused her to put down her fork and abandon her complementary meal as she tried to calm herself, but that didn’t really help her focus. All she could think about were the legions of well-wishers who had sent her off to Atlanta with positive thoughts.

The burgeoning star said that as the moment quickly approached when she would go head to head with some of the Southeast’s brightest talent, including Atlanta Braves announcer Chip Caray, all she could hear were the “good lucks,” and the “break a legs” she had gotten from fellow shoppers in Publix and other mothers dropping their children off at day care over the previous few days.

“All of those messages and that kind of stuff is going through my mind, and then, of course, they do the ‘and the nominees are,’ and you see it on the screen. I remember I just looked down,” Carter recalled. “I guess I was so nervous and I heard them say my name and first of all I was like, ‘They said my name,’ and the second thought was ‘They said it right.’ When they called my name, it was like gasping for air.”

From there Carter said she remembers very little other than hubby Chris and the rest of the Georgia Public Broadcasting team seated at her table jumping up and hugging her and having a fleeting thought about not tripping on her dress and not having a prepared speech.

“I started walking up there and I heard my friend Shellie Gay in the back of my mind,” said Carter. “She asked me last week, ‘Well have you practiced your speech?’ And I was like, ‘No I don’t want to jinx anything, I’m not practicing a speech.’ So I’m walking up there and think, ‘Oh, my gosh, I don’t know what I’m going to say.’”

Fortunately when Carter returned to her table with her shiny new Emmy in tow, her husband and the rest of the crew were there to reassure her and let her know she had thanked everyone she needed to and had done a good job.

Although she said she was amazed to take home her first-ever Emmy award, Carter said earning the trophy for her duties as host was validation that she is doing what she’s supposed to be doing.

“It was the only Emmy that we won, which for me was the one I really needed,” Carter said. “The show as a whole, I created it and produced it, but this was saying something about me on camera. This directly said what I was like as a television host. I guess it reaffirmed that this is what I’m supposed to do, that ‘OK you have have it takes.’”

Being able to show others that she has what it takes is also important to Carter who is currently in talks with several television networks about her next foray in front of the camera.

“Winning this Emmy will only help in the talks with the major networks, including the Food Network that we’re in talks with right now,” Carter said. “Being able to be in front of that camera, be creative, think of what will be interesting to the audience, and have fun — and I have so much fun when I’m doing that — I’m ready to get busy again, very ready. It’s long hours but it’s some of the most fun hours I have ever had.”

Not one to rest on her laurels, Carter is continuing work on her other projects, including preparing for the release of her second cookbook and the release of her latest Wicker & Whisk sauce. Additionally Carter will continue to make appearances around the country at different culinary events and will continue to be a fixture at food and wine events as well.

“Gary Black called me this morning to tell me how proud they were and to congratulate me and so forth,” Carter said. “I think that’s the thing that’s meant the most is all the congratulations and the ‘We’re proud of you, you’ve made Albany proud, or Southwest Georgia,’ and that says a lot. I was born and raised here, and nothing makes you feel better than your own family and friends in your own hometown.”