And one of the reasons that I wrote the cook books was so that I could be at home more than being on the road.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think that my love of cooking grew out of my love of reading about cooking. When I was a kid, we had a bookcase in the kitchen filled with cookbooks. I would eat all my meals reading about meals I could have been having.
The cookbooks and the writing in general have been a real bonus, but it's not something I've ever pursued... I've been lucky, I guess.
When I first started to cook, I would cook these elaborate meals, but I rarely cook at home now.
A cookbook is not like being an author. It's writing down recipes; it's not writing.
The one reason why I got into cooking was because I wasn't good at anything else - not that I was good at it, but it was considered honest work.
I'm always in the kitchen, cooking and experimenting - I love it. And every now and then I think, 'I should write a cookbook' or, 'I should write for food magazines.' And then I get drawn back to writing fiction again.
I wanted to learn everything I could about what it takes to be a great chef. It was a turning point for me.
I've been really fortunate in that I guess I was hired to do 'A Cook's Tour;' I was already a known quantity, meaning I had written a really obnoxious book and nobody expected me to be anyone that I wasn't already.
I am a cookbook fanatic.
I use other cookbooks for inspiration. I must say I tend to cook from my own cookbooks for parties.