Old-School Comfort Food The Way I Learned to Cook: A Cookbook

How does one become an Iron Chef and a Choppedjudge on Food Network-and what does she reallycook at home? Alex Guarnaschelli grew up in a home suffused with a love of cooking, where soufflés and cheeseburgers were equally revered. The daughter of a respected cookbook editor and a Chinese cooking enthusiast, Alex developed a passion for food at a young age, sealing her professional fate. Old-School Comfort Foodshares her journey from waist-high taste-tester to trained chef who now adores spending time in the kitchen with her daughter, along with the 110 recipes for how she learned to cook-and the way she still loves to eat. Here are Alex's secrets to great home cooking, where humble ingredients and familiar preparations combine with excellent technique and care to create memorable meals. Alex brings her recipes to life with reminiscences of everything from stealing tomatoes from her aunt's garden and her first bite of her mother's p'té to being one of the few women in the kitchen of a renowned Parisian restaurant and serving celebrity clientele in her own successful New York City establishments. With 75 color photographs and ephemera, Old-School Comfort Foodis Alex's love letter to deliciousness.

ALEX GUARNASCHELLI is the executive chef of the New York City restaurants Butter and The Darby. A graduate of Barnard College and La Varenne cooking school, she trained with acclaimed chefs Guy Savoy in Paris and Daniel Boulud in New York. An Iron Chef on Iron Chef America and a judge on Chopped, she has hosted and appeared on numerous Food Network shows, including Alex’s Day Off and The Cooking Loft, and writes a blog on foodnetwork.com. She makes her home in New York City with her daughter.