Gray Willow’s Meghan Colon could be the next Favorite Chef

EARLTON―The heat is on as culinary masters across the United States and Canada are contending in the annual Favorite Chef competition. Among them is Meghan Colon, the executive chef of Gray Willow in Earlton.

Colon has made it into the contest’s Top 10 and hopes to make it all the way to the top. The winner receives $25,000, an exclusive cooking experience with celebrity chef Carla Hall on an episode of Chewed Up and a feature in Taste of Home, America’s number one cooking magazine.

“My journey hasn’t been a traditional one,” explained Colon, a Catskill High School graduate and mom of two boys.

“At a young age, I struggled with addiction and spent years feeling lost, disconnected, and unsure of who I was becoming. Addiction took away my confidence, my peace, and my sense of self. There were many moments when I wondered if I would ever be more than the mistakes I had made,” she said.

On June 13, Colon celebrated 13 years sober.

“Choosing sobriety changed everything. Recovery forced me to confront the pain I had spent years trying to avoid, but it also gave me the opportunity to rebuild my life,” she said.

“Then I became a mother,” Colon said. “Holding my child for the first time gave me a purpose greater than myself and inspired me to become someone they could be proud of.”

Not long after, she discovered cooking.

“What started as preparing meals became a source of healing and self-discovery. In the kitchen, I found creativity, confidence, and a renewed sense of worth,” Colon said.

“Cooking helped me reconnect with myself and gave me a way to turn difficult experiences into something meaningful,” she added.

Colon’s culinary inspiration is her uncle, a man she described as an amazing chef and who lost his life at a young age due to addiction.

“His love for his family and food is what drives me. Knowing that I have him looking down gets me through the hardest shifts,” she said.

Gray Willow opened on State Route 81 in late 2024 at the former Brennan’s Schoolhouse Inn. New owners Joe and Kate Konopka and Joe and Lisa Salvino transformed the longtime roadhouse into a full-service restaurant with an on-site brewery and cocktail bar.

The menu of elevated comfort food features dishes like jumbo wings, Thai chili pork belly, deep fried deviled eggs, specialty burgers, psychedelic rabbit gumbo and burrata with roasted beets. Among this month’s chef’s specials are spicy peach boneless chicken wings and fried chicken with slow cooked collard greens, mac and cheese, and corn bread.

Colon’s signature dish is crispy pork schnitzel with sweet red cabbage, garlic mashed potatoes and cherry pepper gravy.

“Today, I am grateful to be sober, raising my children, and pursuing a passion that has transformed my life,” she said.

If she wins the coveted title of Favorite Chef, Colon says that $25,000 is going toward a down payment on a house.

Anyone can vote for Colon, up to once daily, at https://favchef.com/2026/meghan-colon.

“Being recognized in the Top 10 of the Favorite Chef competition is not just a personal achievement,” said Colon. “It is a reminder that recovery is possible and that second chances can lead to something beautiful.”