"How does one become an Iron Chef and a Chopped judge on Food Network--and what does she really cook at home? Alex Guarnaschelli grew up in a home suffused with a love of cooking, where souffles 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 Food shares her journey from waist-high taste-tester to trained chef who now adores spending time in the kitchen with her daughter, along with the 100 recipes for how she learned to cook--and the way she still loves to eat. Here are Alexs 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 aunts garden and her first bite of her mothers p'te 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 Food is Alexs love letter to deliciousness"--"The chef of the celebrity-filled restaurants Butter and The Darby in Manhattan, Alex earned her chops by cooking in some of the worlds finest French restaurants, including the Michelin three-starred Guy Savoy in Paris and Daniel Bouluds flagship restaurant in New York City. But before she was any of these things, she was the daughter of the legendary cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli. Alex grew up devouring cookbooks and recipes the way other young girls read Nancy Drew novels.

All of this makes OLD-SCHOOL COMFORT FOOD, the result of a lifelong love affair with food, her most precious project to date. Here are the recipes that taught Alex to cook, that piqued her in interest in food, and that continue to inspire her cooking today, both on and off camera. The dishes Alex returns to again and again have all the hallmarks of superb home cooking: they marry humble ingredients and familiar family-style preparations with techniques garnered from her remarkable culinary pedigree. Each page is infused with her fierce passion and knowledge, all conveyed in her deeply personal and engaging writing. This is a chefs cookbook that reads like a memoir, with 75 photos and 125 recipes home cooks will actually make and adore"--.