When did you first become interested in cooking?
The minute I moved into my first apartment. I loved having my own kitchen and I wanted to use it. I didn't want to order take out food. I wanted to cook.

I called my mother constantly. I would ask for advice or tell her what I had made. I called her a lot over the years for counsel on love and cooking. She's better at the cooking advice.

Tell us about your book, I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti.
It's a memoir of good food and bad boyfriends.

What was the inspiration for putting food and love together?
The day after the last boyfriend in the book, Lachlan, left, I started writing though I hadn't written since college. I wrote about the many disappointing relationships I had over twenty years of New York City dating. I was disciplined and wrote every day. I didn't know what would happen but I had faith the something would.

The idea for the book hit me while I was writing about making a pear cake for a guy who wanted to sleep with me, but wasn't interested in a relationship (Pear Cake for Friends with Benefits). It hit me then that I had a unique tale to tell, few women would bake in such a situation.

What is your philosophy on cooking?
I've always been a simple cook. I would never go near Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I like complicated dishes just fine, but I think simple things are just as delicious. Mostly, I want people to cook and realize how easy it can be.

What is your philosophy on love?
Love is easy when you find the person who is right for you. You don't find that person until you are ready to. It took me a long time to be ready, even though I spent many years thinking I was and wondering why love was eluding me. It comes down to timing and everybody's timing is different.

What do you find similar about food and love?
The warmth and generosity one puts into cooking is a bit like love. Then, of course, making a great meal for someone is a fine seduction technique. It's also a way of taking care of another person and showing them how you feel.

What is your favorite recipe in the book?
I like Bucatini Amatriciana with MP3 File-Sharing Technology because it's funny and if you strip away the joke, there's a recipe underneath. I'm also attached to First-Date Butterflies because it's one I make over and over. Lachlan's Last Supper (Teriyaki Pork Loin, Cilantro Rice, and Bok Choy with Garlic) is a good Asian themed meal, it's a dinner party menu ready to go.

What are some of your best tricks and tips about food from your book?
Salting your pasta water is essential. Some people don't realize how much salt you actually need. People flinch when they see me do it, because I don't measure it. But you can't be afraid to use salt because it is the base of the flavor of pasta. You need good salty water with the scent of the Mediterranean.

What was your best experience with food?
I feel very proud (though exhausted) when I make the many courses of fish for Christmas Eve. I like that I'm able to carry on my family's traditions, duplicating my mother's prowess in the kitchen. So I feel good if can get the food right for a special occasion like that.

What was your worst experience with food?
When I first moved into my apartment, I kept having oven fires and smoking kitchens. Every time I had a dinner party, the whole place would fill up with smoke. I was trying to cook pork at very high temperatures, because I read that made for moist meat. I've since given up on this. You can't get too adventurous in a New York apartment kitchen. Though I have ripped out the smoke detector for good.

What is your favorite food?
I like everything except for peanut butter.

What is your favorite beverage?
Wine-- Nebbiolo.

What are some of your favorite pairings?
Chocolate and fruit. Pears and parmigiano. Roast beef and gravy.

What is your favorite place to eat?
It changes all the time. Right now it's Franny's on Flatbush Avenue. I love so many of our great Brooklyn restaurants: Al Di La, James, Buttermilk Channel .