Uncovered with Rick Rodgers

The weather is turning chilly again. Meaning—it is macaroni and cheese time! And when I think of macaroni and cheese, I think of Patti LaBelle. (Doesn’t everyone?) I first worked with her on “LaBelle Cuisine” (where she first published her infamous recipe), and later on “LaBelle Desserts.”Describing how those books were written is a good way of explaining what goes into a celebrity cookbook. But ...

No doubt about it: Everyone loves a beautiful cookbook. But photography’s importance has developed to a point where it is on a par with the recipes themselves.

The average cookbook lover probably doesn’t understand the wholesale cost of photos and how they have skewed costs, especially for the author. I am not advocating lower fees from the talented people who make the beautiful photos! Professional photography is what m...

I am often asked about my culinary influences, and there were many. I have the usual suspects—my European family members, of course, and Julia Child and other TV chefs. But one was surprising:

Gypsy Rose Lee.

Yes, the stripper. She’s been dead for 56 years, but her name still resonates, mainly to show biz buffs who remember the musical based on her best-selling memoirs, Gypsy. In our current sexually charged era, stripper...

To get to the point where cookbook editors called me to help with their cookbooks, I had to develop the cooking skills that made me a valuable hire. My culinary adventures and training also helped me when it came time to write my own cookbooks. When I moved to New York (to become an actor, not a food professional), I became immersed in its celebrity culture. I was going to be cooking for the movers and shakers in the arts world, s...

Someone recently asked me to compile a complete list of my book projects over the years. It took some doing, as the final count is about 110 books in various roles. My first book, Best Brownies Ever, with Joan Steuer, came out in 1987. From the very start, I began collaborating with other food professionals to help them write their books, a move that did me very well. Most cookbook wannabes wanted their own turf and wouldn’t ...