Andrea Lambert says she’d “never won anything like this before.” The Phoenix, Ariz., resident was the grand prize winner in the Pure Bar Recipe Contest, coming out on top over creative cooks across the country. The only requirements in the competition were that the recipe had to be original and be vegetarian.

Lambert is not only a practicing vegan, but also teaches a food processor class in vegan raw foods. Her winning recipe for Walnut Paté (pictured here) was chosen as the best among many great submissions by the Pure Bar judges. It’s a recipe she’s had for a while, and has demonstrated in her class.

You can find her recipe here on the Pure Bar Facebook page.

As grand prize winner, Lambert will be taking off for a trip to Napa Valley wine country in February, where she will get to be a student this time, enjoying a cooking class at the Culinary Institute of America. She will bring along her boyfriend, who is also a vegan. Lambert says she hopes to learn more about organic, sulfite-free wines on her trip to Napa, a place she has never before visited.

An avid raw foods proponent, Lambert says she has fun reminding her young niece and nephew that they like raw foods, too. “When they protest, I say, ‘Well, you like strawberries, right?’ “It’s pretty funny, because their dad is a big meat eater,” Lambert says.

Lambert was “very excited” to win the contest, she says—it was “very cool” when she got the call that her recipe was the top prize winner. “I’ve got a friend who’s been telling me I should become a TV chef promoting the vegan lifestyle,” Lambert says. “When I learned about this Pure Bar recipe contest, I thought, well, I can do that.”

Who knows, perhaps this win will catapult her in the direction of TV stardom. Remember, you heard it here first.