Tamron Hall and Lish Steiling believe that confidence is the best ingredient in any recipe.
Daily talk show host Tamron Hall teamed up with a James Beard Award winner for her first cookbook, Self-confident cook: Recipes for joyful fun without pressure in the kitchen, on sale this September. PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the cover, which features Hall and Steiling back-to-back in the kitchen.
“It’s a story about two girls with the same hairdo and the same dream,” Hall laughs to PEOPLE.
The talk show host was not always a “confident cook”. Her interest in food was “inspired” by her father, who died shortly after she moved to New York and began working in Today’s show in 2014.
“He cooked and prepared every meal for us. And, after he passed away, we knew we were going to miss many, many things, but his cooking and tradition of love were just a hole in the cave,” she says.
Hall struggled to find her footing in the kitchen, despite cooking alongside many chefs in cooking segments. “A two-minute cooking segment or a quick thing with a chef on a TV show doesn’t make you, believe it or not, a good home cook,” he jokes.
And Confident Cook will go on sale on September 3rd and is available for pre-order now.
Hyperion Avenue, photo credit: 2024 Lauren Volo
That’s where Steiling stepped in. “We met when I was still in Today’s show, and Lish was part of the food styling team and the culinary team. And, I noticed he has a radish and carrot tattoo. And I thought, ‘Anyone who’s brave enough to tattoo vegetables on their body must know something about cooking,'” says Hall.
The pair first bonded over a love of working out (their first friendly outing was an exercise class at boot camp in Central Park), but Steiling quickly became supportive of the veteran journalist learning to cook. Hall would text her and call her with any kitchen questions, she explains.
“This sms cooking and sending pictures gave me confidence. And my friendship with Lisha offered this great opportunity, along with modern technology, to build my confidence,” she says.
Friends want readers to experience this kind of hands-on help in the pages of their new cookbook, which is now available for pre-order.
“One of the biggest compliments I got when friends tested recipes was when they said, ‘I could hear you talking to me. I could feel you in the kitchen standing next to me,’ says Steiling.
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“You can turn up the heat, you can turn down the heat, you can add more salt. There are so many things that people think you have to follow a recipe for, but so much of cooking involves using all of your senses; and it is an emotion, it is a feeling. Knowing that you can follow that feeling and that instinct is empowering,” she continues.
They share recipes like Baked French Toast with Berries and Harissa Roasted Carrots with Queso Fresca and have cooking options for one or the whole crew. The cookbook also includes information on which pantry staples and kitchen tools the couple finds really necessary, since Hall struggled with that herself.
“When I started getting the courage to even explore cooking, I went and actually bought so many things at Williams Sonoma that five people had to help. I mean, it looked like a scene from Pretty Woman when she left with all the bags,” Hall recalls with a laugh, explaining that Steiling offered advice on sorting through her kitchen drawers.
Now, Hall hopes her viewers will get to where she is today.
“People say they want to hang out with me on my talk show,” she says, “but I want the person reading the book to say, ‘I want to sit at that table with them. I want to eat that breakfast sandwich with them. And I want to make it for my friends or family.’”
Self-confident cook will go on sale September 3rd and is available for pre-order now.
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Source: HIS Education