How Food Network Star and Cookbook Author Katie Lee Biegel Fosters a Stress-Free Holiday
There is so much that chef, cookbook author, and devoted mom, Katie Lee Biegel loves about the holidays that she is spilling over with recipes and tips to share to help each of us navigate the winter holidays with less stress.
She has written four best-selling cookbooks and her Food Network Show, The Kitchen, has aired for nearly 10 years, and she does not appear to be slowing down her jam-packed schedule any time soon.
From her gorgeous kitchen, adorned with appliances from her new partner, Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove, she is also eager to encourage us to unwind from holiday stress using her favorite pastime; cooking as a form of therapy.
“We’re coming up on one of the most stressful times of the year — the Holidays,” Biegel recently explained. “Because an astounding 95% of Americans find cooking to be calming and soothing, What I remember the most about my grandma was cooking with her, and that she was calm. She passed that on to me.”
Read on for a recent chat with Biegel on fond family cooking memories that extend to making dough with her two-year-old daughter, and favorite holiday recipes.
Please talk about a few early memories of cooking in the kitchen with your grandmother, and how the comfort food in your cookbooks and that you make now kind of goes back to that.
Katie Lee Biegel: Well, I pretty much grew up in my grandma’s kitchen. She was my babysitter and she was always cooking, so I was always in the kitchen with her. That’s where my earliest memories are, making biscuits with her. Biscuit dough was like Playdough for me and I’m really hoping to pass that on to my daughter.
My lovely daughter is only two years old but she loves to hang out in the kitchen with me when I’m cooking. She sits in a chair and watches me, and if I’m making dough, I let her play with it. If I’m stirring, she gets in there and she stirs. She always makes a little mess, but it’s worth it. You know, I think that so much of food is nostalgia and having those warm memories around it, so I’m really happy to be creating those.
Is there a tip that you learned as a young child from your grandma or other family members that stayed with you?
Oh gosh, so many. My grandma made everything look really easy. She just was able to whip everything together. For me, it’s about planning ahead. I like to plan and I make a list for myself so that I can stay very organized in the kitchen, especially with the holidays coming up.
I recently partnered with Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove for this kitchen therapy initiative and having those calm moments in the kitchen. There was not a chaotic energy around it. It was something that she enjoyed doing and she gave me that legacy to pass on to my daughter.
What do you remember and appreciate most about growing up on a farm in West Virginia?
I grew up in a small town of only 2,200 people, and it was a sense of community. I was in the same neighborhood as my grandparents, my great-grandmother, my great-aunt, and my uncle. And everybody cooked, everybody shared their food, and it was a really nice way to have my childhood. Here I am in this big city now, but I do feel a sense of community in New York. New Yorkers looking out for each other and getting to know people in my neighborhood is really important to me, and for my daughter as well.
I think there are two kinds of holidays. There are the people who get frazzled and stressed and miss the whole fun part and family part of it, and those who are more relaxed and enjoy all of the aspects of the festive day.
Yes. I think a lot of times we put too much pressure on ourselves. If you take away that need for perfectionism and just try to enjoy the process, and about carving out the time. For me, that’s what the main thing is, is making the plan ahead. I know we’ve got 13 people coming to visit us for Thanksgiving. I know I’m going to be swamped that Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
I’m going to start doing my Thanksgiving prep. I’ll shop the week and weekend ahead of time. I know everything’s going to stay fresh in that Sub-Zero, and I will start cooking. I want most of my cooking to be done on Monday and Tuesday, and then on Thursday, all I have to do is put it in the oven.
Do you have any other tips for my readers in terms of if they want to bake cookies with their children, especially during Christmas and Hanukkah, how do you make things calmer for that activity?
I think whenever the kids are involved you just have to accept that you’re going to have a big mess. Accept that it’s not going to go as you had it in your head and just embrace whatever turns out. It’s mostly just about them having fun and enjoying themselves. I would advise you to not do the kid cooking when you’re in any kind of a time crunch.
Do you have a couple of favorite comfort foods that you enjoy making and that you love to eat?
Oh, so many. I’ve got one sitting on the stove now. It has a piece taken out of it because I had to have some. So, this is my pumpkin chocolate croissant bread pudding. I love this recipe because if you’re not a baker, and I don’t consider myself a baker. I can’t do those fancy cake concoctions; I like simple desserts. A bread pudding is pretty much foolproof.
I like to put it in the oven when everybody sits down for Thanksgiving dinner. Because then this can go in and it comes out of the oven hot and the house smells so good. Again, the oven is prime real estate on Thanksgiving Day, so you’re not trying to bake your desserts while the turkey’s in there too. Bake them at the end and it’s in the fridge waiting for you. I wish you could smell it. It smells so good.
My mom introduced me to the Food Network and we enjoyed watching them together. Could you talk about your cookbooks first and then your most recent Food Network shows?
Well, just hearing you say that I love being a part of The Food Network because it does feel like we become part of people’s families. And we’re very connected to our viewers and have a loyal audience, which is such a gift. I love my job. I feel like being on The Kitchen is the best gig on TV.
My co-hosts have become my family, the people working behind the scenes as well. We have a lot of fun and that’s what it’s all about. It never feels like work, and I think that’s the way food should feel in general. It should be fun, and enjoyable, it’s what brings us all together. I love when I hear from people on social media that they watch The Kitchen and that they’re making my recipes.
Tell me about the most recent one.
My most recent cookbook was It’s Not Complicated. And it’s just how it sounds; cooking shouldn’t be complicated. So, these are easy, delicious recipes that are great for a Tuesday night or when company is coming for dinner.
Why was the theme of It’s Not Complicated? Why was that important to you?
Well, that’s the way that I like to cook. I don’t gravitate toward long, complicated recipes with 25 ingredients. I like things to be simple. I like to use good quality ingredients that you don’t necessarily have to do a lot to. So, this was really the way that I cook, the way that my family likes to eat, and it was a lot of fun to put this cookbook together.
Tell me a little bit more about The Kitchen, for which you were nominated for an Emmy.
Well, The Kitchen’s been on now for almost 10 years. We’ve had 30 seasons air and it just continues to evolve and find new recipes, and new tips and tricks, and I just really enjoy it. It is a lot of fun.
Is the kitchen the hub of your house?
Yes, I feel like the kitchen’s the heart of the home, and that’s the whole thing with our show. We are inviting people to hang out in the kitchen with us, and I think that that’s why viewers enjoy it so much. They feel like they’re sitting around on Saturday morning hanging out with us while we cook, and we’re talking and having our coffee. It’s just a good time.
Tell me about holiday preparation in your home.
Every year when we spend the day decorating our tree I make a beef bourguignon, and we watch Christmas movies while we decorate.
Yum. What are your favorite Christmas movies?
I love The Holiday, the Nancy Meyers movie with Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet. That’s my number one. I named my daughter Iris after Kate Winslet’s character. I love that movie. Gosh, we like all of them. We just have a constant loop of Christmas movies playing and Christmas music.
Do you have a favorite turkey recipe in one of your cookbooks?
I do. I do my turkey the same way every year with sage butter under the skin, then a maple-basting broth and cornbread stuffing.
What other Thanksgiving, Christmas, or holiday tips can you share?
I’m so about being prepared. I think making lists for yourself really does help. But also choose the time that you want to eat your holiday meal and work backward. Because so much of it is timing. I remember people would always walk into my grandma’s dinners and go, “Gosh, she just gets everything on the table at the same time like it’s nothing.” So it’s about figuring out the timing of when everything’s going to be done.
Knowing what time, you want the turkey to be done, well, you have to let the turkey sit out for an hour before you put it in the oven. Then you got the cooking time. Then you need it to rest for at least an hour after it comes out. After it comes out, how are you going to utilize your oven for the other things that need to be baked? I think it’s all about timing.
Pumpkin and Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding Recipe — Courtesy of Cookbook Author Katie Lee Biegel
Ingredients:
· Nonstick cooking spray, for the baking dish
· 6 large eggs
· 3 cups half-and-half
· 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
· 1/2 cup sugar
· 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
· 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
· 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 6 chocolate croissants, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
· 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
· Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)
· Hot fudge sauce
· Caramel sauce
Directions:
1. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, half-and-half, pumpkin, sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and vanilla. Add the croissant pieces and chocolate chunks and toss to coat. Transfer to the prepared baking dish. Press the mixture down into the pan. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to overnight to allow the liquid to be absorbed.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
4. Bake until golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Serve hot with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if desired. Drizzle with hot fudge and caramel sauces.
