Get an unprecedented look inside the mind and kitchen of America’s top chef in this memoir and cookbook by Tom Colicchio, the multiple-James Beard and Emmy Award-winning chef, restaurateur, and television personality.

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.

Through 12 memoir chapters and 50 recipes, Why I Cook shares Tom’s personal reflections of more than 40 years behind the stove. From pre-dawn fishing excursions with his grandfather to running the flat-top at the snack shack of the local swim club, to finding his way as a young chef in New York City, Tom chronicles the dishes and memories that make up the course of his extraordinary life. Along the way Tom reveals his struggle growing up with undiagnosed ADHD, his earliest mistakes in professional kitchens, stories from his time on Top Chef, and so much more.

The recipes, which reconnect Tom to home cooking—his first love—are a combination of current Colicchio family favorites, such as Warm Eggplant Salad with Ginger, Chilis, and Fresh Herbs, and heirloom recipes passed down from Tom’s parents and grandparents, like his mother’s Crab Rice and his grandfather’s Beet Salad. Through these meaningful dishes, gorgeous recipe shots, and images from Tom’s childhood, Why I Cook is the most personal look into Tom’s life yet.