COOKING AS FAST AS I CAN

From Food Network star and first female winner of Iron Chef Cat Cora, an irresistible, no-holds-barred memoir on Southern life, Greek heritage, same sex marriage and the meals that have shaped her memories--for readers of Gabrielle Hamilton and Portia de Rossi.

Before she became a renowned chef and Food Network star, Cat Cora was just a girl from Jackson Mississippi, where days were slow and every meal was made from scratch. By the age of 15, Cora was writing the business plan for her first restaurant. Her passion for the kitchen started in her Greek home in Jackson, Mississippi, where fresh feta and home-cured olives filled the kitchen. Cat spent her days internalizing the dishes that would form the cornerstone of her cooking philosophy--from crispy fried chicken and honey-drenched biscuits to spanakopita.

But outside the kitchen, Cat's life was volatile. In Cooking as Fast as I Can, Cat Cora reveals, for the first time, the experiences that shaped her life--from early childhood sexual abuse to the realities of life as a lesbian in the deep South. She chronicles how she found her passion in the kitchen and went on to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and apprentice under Michelin star chefs in France. After her big break as a co-host with Rocco Di Spirito on the Food Network's Melting Pot, Cat broke barriers by becoming the first-ever female contestant on Iron Chef. By turns epic and intimate, Cooking as Fast as I Can explores Cat Cora's unlikely success in a demanding industry, and the grit it takes to achieve your dreams.

Cat Cora grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, attended the Culinary Institute of America, then traveled overseas to apprentice in Europe with world-renowned French chefs Georges Blanc and Roger Vergé. Returning to the U.S., Cora landed in the Manhattan kitchens of the trailblazing Anne Rozensweig and the legendary Larry Forgione. It wasn’t long before the Food Network, in 1999, discovered her and cast her opposite Rocco DiSpirito to co-host the TV show Melting Pot. She then became the first female Iron Chef. She is the founder of the charitable organization Chefs for Humanity, a grassroots organization that mobilizes chefs to lend their skills to communities in need, and she currently has restaurants at Disneyworld, Costa Mesa, Houston, Salt Lake City and San Francisco. She lives in Santa Barbara with her wife and four sons.

Karen Karbo's first novel, Trespassers Welcome Here, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a Village Voice Top Ten Book of the Year. Her 2004 memoir, The Stuff of Life, about the last year she spent with her father before his death, was an NYT Notable Book, a People Magazine Critics' Choice, a Books for a Better Life Award finalist, and a winner of the Oregon Book Award for Creative Non-fiction.