Why I Cook

Tom Colicchio cooked his first recipe at 13 years old—a stuffed eggplant from an issue of Cuisine magazine that he picked up out of boredom—and it changed his life. Now for the first time ever, Tom recounts the extraordinary personal journey that brought him from his working-class Italian background in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to the award-winning kitchens of New York City’s best restaurants, to the set of Top Chef and the stage of the Emmy Awards.