Through 150 decadent and smart recipes, the Food Network icon explores how the relationships with her family have shaped her as a chef and home cook.
"Each recipe overflows with love and purpose, technique and soul, and, most of all, genuine joy for nourishing the people in your life who matter most."--Gail Simmons, food expert, TV host, and author of Bringing it Home
Growing up with a legendary cookbook-editor mother and a food-obsessed father, Alex Guarnaschelli has always loved to cook. Now, with a daughter of her own, food and cooking mean even more to Alex--they are a way for her to share memories, such as shopping in Little Italy with her father for cured meats and aged cheeses, and tasting the recipes her mom would make from the cookbooks of the iconic authors she worked with.
And, more than anything, cooking is what Alex and her daughter, Ava, most love to do together. In Cook with Me, Alex revives the recipes she grew up with, such as her mom's chicken with barbecue sauce and her dad's steamed pork dumplings, offers recipes for foods that she wishes she grew up with, such as comforting and cheesy baked ziti, and details dishes new to her repertoire, including sheet pan pork chops with spicy Brussels sprouts and a roasted sweet potato salad with honey and toasted pumpkin seeds. From meatballs two ways (are you a Godfather or a Goodfellas person?) to the blueberry crumble her mom made every summer, Alex shares recipes and insights that can come only from generations of collective experience. These recipes reflect the power that food has to bring people together and is a testament to the importance of sustaining traditions and creating new ones.
Alex Guarnaschelli is a judge on numerous Food Network shows including Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay, the host of her digital series Fix Me a Plate, and one of three women Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America. The daughter of esteemed cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli, Alex grew up in Manhattan immersed in food. She moved to Paris to work at Guy Savory for four years before returning to cook at Daniel. She has been the executive chef at Butter Restaurant since 2003 and lives in New York City with her daughter, Ava.