Williams Anna - Donatella cooks: simple food made glamorous

To my mom and dad,
who always believed in me.

Tella Bella

One of the best parts of running restaurants for the last 10 years is the amazing people Ive had the chance to meetdozens Ive come to call friends. Most have enjoyed great success in their careers, navigating such competitive professions as the law, politics, media, art, and finance with ease. So it never fails to surprise me to observe how tentativeeven downright fearfulthese normally fearless folks can seem when it comes to entertaining at home. One friend, a former model and the brains behind two Internet start-ups, considers a shrimp ring from the corner deli her secret weapon. Another friend, an event planner, can arrange a party for 1,000 people using only her Blackberry but becomes paralyzed faced with a dinner for eight. My savvy young assistant, whose multitasking skills are unparalleled, goes slack at the sight of a recipe. Even my sister, a lawyer turned stay-at-home mom who grew up eating my mothers authentic Italian food, cant seem to get herself out of her weekly dry meat loaf food rut.

This book is for themand all of you equally savvy, stylish, busy women and men, who, despite mastering all you attempt, suffer a crippling lack of confidence upon entering the kitchen.

Of course not everyone is lucky enough to be born into the restaurant world as I was, though it took me a while to realize that it was where I belonged. After law school and 4 miserable months behind a desk at a Midtown Manhattan law firm, I wised up and followed my heartand the footsteps of my father, who had come to America from Naples, Italy, with nothing and eventually became a well-known restaurateur.

With my father, my mentor in the restaurant business

I opened my first restaurant, Bellini, in Manhattan in 1998, basically faking it until I made it. At least thats how it felt. After struggling to put my hard-earned law degree to good use, working in a restaurant felt more like hosting a party every night. But then again, in my family, I had always been the one who made sure everyone was having a good time. Who knew it was a talent? Drawing from the food I ate throughout my childhood summers in Naples, where my dad grew up, and Puglia, where my mother was born into a family of 10, I created a menu that was essentially an homage to my culinary roots. About 8 months after opening, I found myself standing in the middle of the dining room with Mary J. Blige and Queen Latifah in one corner, Walter Cronkite and his wife in another, then-police commissioner Howard Safir and billionaire (and future New York City mayor) Michael Bloomberg in another and, well, the Italian men in slick suits who tipped very well, ahem, in yet another. I realized that what allowed such a diverse group of high-wattage people to coexist happily in the same room was me. I had the ability to make each one of them feel as if he or she was the only person there. Thats when I knew I was going to make it. Nine restaurant launches later, Im still hereand the pleasure of feeding people great food glamorously in beautiful settings has become my addiction.

I live the quintessential New York City life, rubbing elbows with the culinary elite and a chic clientele, but behind my Dior shades is a soul deeply attached to the lives of my Apulian and Neapolitan relatives. At home, my cooking style is very much indebted to the summers I spent on my grandmothers farm in Toritto in Puglia. There, in the orchards, gardens, and kitchens of my six aunts, my food sensibility was formed. Not a single one of the sisters was what you would call glamorousthink housedress and slippers for a more accurate visualbut they were using the freshest ingredients and preparing them simply, and those are the keys to becoming a good cook no matter who you are (or what you wear).

Presiding over a restaurant every night, however, does have its advantages, particularly when it comes to gleaning the tricks and techniques chefs use to bring drama to the plate and, in my role as hostess, knowing how to walk the fine line between sophistication and snobbery. No one entertains solely to give pleasure to others, though. When I serve a meal that delights my guests, whether at home or in a restaurant, Im fulfilling a deeper needone that I suspect every cook sharesfor approval, admiration, and awe. I get just as much pleasure out of hosting as my restaurant customers and guests in my home do being there.

In Puglia, and picking olives in my mothers Puglian olive grove

Judging Iron Chef America

Learning to make pasta with Zia Rosinella

Making orechiette with Zia Rosinella

Before you protest that I have access to better ingredients, teachers, and other resources than you do, let me say unequivocally: You do not have to be an accomplished chef to put a fantastic meal on the table. I know this is a tough concept to wrap your heads around, but once you let go of the idea that you need to reproduce the restaurant meals you order so proficiently, youll be well on your way to entertaining like a superstar.

Donatella Cooks is a blueprint of my cooking and entertaining strategies. It will help you with everything from shopping for great ingredients to hosting a perfect evening. The recipes that follow are rooted in the dishes of my Southern Italian heritage, with some influences from neighboring Spain and Greece. They also reflect more than a decade of working with great chefsand stealing their secrets. None ask you to have a mastery of complex techniques, but they all must be made with the freshest, finest ingredients you can find. In fact, the recipes are arranged by season to reinforce the fresh-ingredient rule. The ingredients, in general, are few, which is another reason to seek out the best.

Taste is only part of the culinary equation, though. Customers return to my restaurants again and again, not only because the food is delicious, but also because its presented beautifully and always with a little drama. We eat with our eyes first, and the easiest way to make it seem like youve spent a lot of time in the kitchen is to arrange food on the plate artfully. And choose those plates carefully. In my house its the tableware, not chef-y knife skills, that makes the presentation special. Im not going to ask you to bake your own bread or make your own pasta or pizza dough, and I am not opposed to accompanying dishes with items picked up from the gourmet food shop or specialty purveyors. I encourage you to pull together a spread from fine cheeses and charcuterie, olives, and fresh fruitall picked up at the storewhen the occasion calls for it.