We're thrilled to announce Ann Miller-Tobin as one of the finalists for Real Women of Philadelphia!

This Ohio gal is a master dessert maker and cabaret performer! Ann works as an Agency Services and Order Specialist at the Mid Ohio Food Bank and was part of a team that recently raised 5000k for Operation Feed! Real Women of Philadelphia is so proud to welcome this truly incredible lady!

We chatted with Ann about what this experience has meant to her asked a little bit about her life with food!

Describe your biggest kitchen disaster.

Most recently I was baking a cheesecake, the same way I do every time, and I gently tapped the spring form pan on the counter to make all the air bubbles rise to the surface, just like I normally do. Well, the buckle on the side of the spring form pan broke and the batter started oozing everywhere! I immediately fell on top of it trying to hold it on the counter with my chest and shirt and arms! Well that did not work it oozed everywhere and dripped over ht edge down the face of my cabinets and onto the floor! Three pounds of Philly cream cheese, a dozen eggs, cream, vanilla cookie crust all sliding away from me - I was so stunned at what just happened I wasn't sure what to do. I was alone in the house and the more I tried to scoop it up the more it oozed. It took over an hour to clean the kitchen and myself then I had to start it all over again! Yikes!

Why is cooking so important to you?

It's a way to be creative! Like art, it's about personal expression - you can take several ingredients and weave them like paint and brush to create a masterpiece! Cooking for others is so rewarding, I love creating new dishes and putting a smile on someone's face. Food can be comforting as well as nourishing and when you are cooking with love and passion you are also nourishing your soul. Cooking can be meditative. I often lose myself in the kitchen when I am experimenting. I play Iron chef in my head all the time or Hell's Kitchen! Next to a few directors I have worked for in the theatre, Chef Ramsey is a lamb!

Cooking is important to me because I am a people-pleaser and I feel good when someone has enjoyed a meal I made for them, or a treat. When my dad was dying and the cancer and chemo had robbed him of so many joys, including his taste for food, I wanted nothing more than to find or cook things that would please him or tempt him to eat. Hoping not only to make him smile but give him some energy to keep fighting. It was my way of helping. I had the privilege of being home round the clock the last two weeks of his life and I tried to make a game of what the daily menu was going to be. Even if it was a simple piece of toast I would dress and garnish his plate and pick a fresh flower from mom's garden, toss a kitchen towel over my arm and pretend to serve him as if we were in a fancy restaurant not in the family room with him in pajamas tethered to an oxygen tank.

Cooking to me means so many things. Cooking is therapy, it is healing for me. Cooking is family, creativity, personal expression. I am centered when I am in the kitchen. It makes me feel good!

What are you going to say to Paula Deen when you meet her for the first time?

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!! I would thank her for this great opportunity. And let her know how much this means to me more than she could ever know. Whether I win or not I feel blessed and like I have already won. It will be an honor to meet her and talk with her and tell her how infectious her smile can be! Even on dark days, watching Paula Deen in the kitchen smiling at you, sharing her stories and love of food - you can't help but smile back at her. She is a great Lady. Her life story is inspiring. And after I ask if it's possible to see her chicken coup and rescue chickens I'd politely say "Please, please tell me the secret to cooking success &... 'What Would Paula Deen Do?'"

And here's Ann in her own words!

I am 40 years old I live in Columbus Ohio -GO BUCKEYES! I married across state lines, a Michigan man the arch rival to OSU but he was so darn cute I had to!!! I work for the Mid Ohio Food bank in Agency Services as an order specialist. I serve on the internal communications committee and I help publish the employee newsletter.

Currently I am working on our Internal Operation Feed Campaign. Which is a community based program which helps bring food and funds into Mid Ohio Food Bank so that we can offer product, food at a great discount to our agencies. Last year our goal was to raise 6,000 meals and we blew our goal out of the water and raised 15,000 meals. This year our goal is a whopping 19,000 meals but I am confident we can get there. We just had our Silent Auction bake sale and raised $531.00 towards our goal. And coming up we have our One Pot Wonders crock pot cook off competition that I help organize for the first time last year. We are hoping to get local chefs, food critics and "Food Industry" people to come and serve as guest judges so we can award the employee favorite with the Wooden Spoon Award!!! Should be fun. Is Paula available to come be a guest-judge on Friday June 11th? We could use a great talent and palate like her to help the cause!! Ha-ha.

Outside of work I bake desserts for the theatre company I used to perform with. Friends , family and co-workers often order up confections. I am trying to get a small kitchen business off the ground - Diva Desserts! This competition has done so much for my self confidence. Strangers are sending me private notes telling me they are trying one of my recipes. It's validation, and excitement, bliss to know I am on a path I am meant to be on - oh, and I just landed a local pizza shop here in town that is going to carry some of my dessert creations! Horay!

This competition means so much to me. It is a validation of a dream and a passion and now I truly feel like anything is possible. I am building confidence, finally "going for my dreams" I feel like I am so much closer to finding and following my joy. This website and competition has been so supportive from the producers to the contestants and naturally Paula our head cheerleader!!! It has been a joy to get to know the Real Women of Philadelphia! I feel so blessed and beyond words to be a finalist, a lucky 16. I can't wait to be a cheerleader and encourage the rest of the ladies as we finish off the next few weeks!