When I wrote 'Fast Food My Way' in 2004, I hoped that my friends would prepare my recipes. Now, more people cook from that book than any other I've written in the past 30 years.
The most followed chef is Delia Smith. She is my age and doesn't try to be entertaining, she encourages people to learn the basics.
I just signed to do my next book with Ecco Press, a new primer or encyclopedia. This will be my take on what classic Italian cooking is.
I'm the only girl on The Food Network who grills - I have two bestselling grilling books. I try to really focus on what men and women can do outside together out on the grill. I think it's really fun to have men and women out there together, having fun, working and enjoying themselves.
I was a bit of an accident really - I certainly didn't set out to write a cookbook or three. I didn't have a plan. I was unemployed, writing a blog about local politics and a few recipes, and it was more successful than I could ever have imagined it to be.
I've always been a great collector and lover of cookbooks.
When I was growing up, Chef Charlie Trotter inspired me a lot.
After opening my first restaurant in 1969, one of the regular customers suggested I write a cookbook, so I did. Then another. After my 12th one, I started to feel stale.
I wanted to write a food book, but I'm not a chef or an expert on culinary matters, to put it mildly.
My office in New York is overflowing with all kinds of cookbooks, and in New Orleans we have a huge culinary library. So yeah, I guess I'm a little bit obsessed.
I think every young cook wants to write a book.
Delia Smith is, actually, my bete noire. I consider her a most pernicious influence.
I don't know Ayesha Curry.
Oh, did I tell you I have a cookbook? I have a cookbook deal.
Emeril Lagasse is one of my great friends.
I'm a great cook. People have asked me to do a cookbook.
I would definitely be interested in doing a cooking show or something related to cooking, and I think probably most immediately, I would do a cookbook.
I would like to, at some point, do a cookbook.
I love the 'Barefoot Contessa' cookbooks - they're so nicely done, and her recipes are beautiful and simple.
I want to be Jacques Pepin. I want to have a nice 50-, 60-year career. I want to be on PBS when I'm 70-something, still kicking it, having a great time, showing up in Aspen to sign cookbooks. I just want to have a nice, big, long career.
If only I had grown up worshipping Julia Child. I was already grown up - thank you very much - when Julia Child's book was published. When I moved to New York in 1962, you had to own it.
I write in the morning - and then I'm always experimenting and tasting recipes for the books.
If you're chained to a computer all day, you're not using up much energy, even if you drag yourself to the gym a couple of days a week. And to make matters worse for me, I've had a secondary career right along with my romance writing - cookbook author, under my real name, Ruth Glick.
I absolutely adore Nigel Slater.
I met Charlie Trotter before I actually saw him in person; I was 24 when I first opened the pages of Charlie's cookbook 'Charlie Trotter's' and was greeted by a man I would know and admire for the next 20 years.
