Cooking For Me Is A Way To

My Goal Is To Make Italian Food Clean And Accessible And Beautiful And Tasty, With Simple Ingredients That People Can Find At A Local Grocery Store, Because People Don't Want To Go To A Gourmet Shop In Search Of Items That Will Sit In Their Pantry For Years After They Use Just A Teaspoon Or Pinch Of Them.

Pretty Much Every Time I Try Something Different Or Do Something In Front Of A Live Audience, I Truly Think They Might Throw Peanuts At Me.

It's Almost Ingrained In People That, Just Like You Can't Be A Smart Model, You Can't Be A Good-looking Cook.

I Write Everything Down. I E-mail The Second I Think Of Something, Or I Write Notes In My Blackberry Calendar. I Set Up Reminder Alerts On My Phone. And I Have A Notebook By My Bedside So I Can Write Down Any Last-minute Ideas.

I Had A Very Tough Childhood. I Came Here From Italy In The '70s And Didn't Speak A Word Of English, So The Kids At School Tormented Me. Truly, It Was Horrifying The Names They Called Me, And The Teachers Never Really Did A Thing To Stop It.