TODAY is coming out with a cookbook! Here’s everything you need to know

Our show is a family. And what do families do? We come together and eat.

We gather around the table to connect over food — even if that means it’s eight, nine or ten in the morning and we’re slamming burgers, cracking into a clambake or sipping on a giant martini.

Since the 1950s, when TODAY was in its infancy, cooking has been an integral part of the show.

“TODAY Loves Food” by Emi Boscamp, Katie Stilo, Debbie Cohen Kosofsky, The TODAY Show Family and Friends

Our broadcast starts with news, which is meant to inform, and ends with food, which is meant to inspire. Our cooking segments are a welcome reprieve from turbulent headlines. We want to bring you the whole world — including what to make for dinner tonight.

In the early days, cooking segments were more formal tutorials focused on home economics and basic techniques. The draw was less about the chef and more about the lesson. But that all changed in the 1990s and early 2000s, when we saw the rise of the celebrity chef. Household names like Martha, Ina and Bobby brought their own unique styles to cooking segments. High-end restaurant chefs ventured out of the kitchen and into our studio to share their culinary secrets.

Since then, we’ve also welcomed home cooks and chefs from all walks of life, who have gained prominence through various means — food blogs, cooking shows, cookbooks and social media — to expose you to a wide range of cuisines and culinary perspectives and, most importantly, help them become more confident (and creative!) cooks.

This book contains recipes from those who have made appearances dozens (if not hundreds) of times, known for their tried-and-true techniques, as well as those who have only recently joined us, a new generation of home cooks, offering fresh and exciting methods.

We’ve evolved as the food world has, but we’ve never wavered in our goal to deliver accessible, affordable and comforting recipes that teach you something new — and that’s what this book is all about.

Aside from contributions from these culinary leaders, we’ve included recipes from our own talent — Savannah, Craig, Al, Dylan, Sheinelle, Carson, Jenna and Hoda — who all have been inspired by the show’s cooking segments and prepare meals for their families at home, but they all bring something different to the table.

Savannah prefers snacking over having a full sit-down meal. Craig is all about comforting, Southern staples inherited from his mom. Al is passionate about high-quality meats and spices. Carson prioritizes big, family-friendly meals. Sheinelle has a solid repertoire of potluck dishes up her sleeve. Dylan is always cooking weeknight meals with her sons. Jenna leans heavily into the Tex-Mex food of her childhood.

So, they’re kind of all over the place, but nothing brings the talent together more than a cooking segment. As the smell of the food wafts through the studio at 6:30 in the morning, before the show starts, a collective excitement builds among the anchors. Craig and Carson, specifically, are constantly popping into the kitchen during commercial breaks to see what’s cooking and hopefully snag a sample.

When we have a chef on the show, they are a big part of the planning process, but they are not actually making the dishes you see so beautifully composed at the end of the segment.

The food stylists make TV magic.

The segment itself will last only four to five minutes — at most — but it takes the food team days, sometimes weeks, of planning and hours of preparation to turn a recipe into a TV-friendly demo with actionable advice.

Our Thanksgiving show, in particular, is the production to end all productions. It’s our food team’s time to shine. With dozens of all-star chefs and their recipes, it takes months to put together multiple segments across the hours that (we hope) leave our viewers feeling empowered to tackle their holiday cooking. So, of course, we had to include some Thanksgiving-worthy recipes, too (see: Erin French’s Smoky Tea-Brined Turkey and Molly Yeh’s Crispy Brussels Sprout Casserole).

And as soon as a cooking segment is over, you’ve never seen people move faster than our crew toward the food, with their Tupperware in tow. It’s really a marvel to behold. There’s nothing like watching hordes of people in the control room and scene dock, who have been seeing and smelling this food for hours, finally get the chance to descend upon the table and taste it.

So, if you’ve ever wondered what happens to leftover food after a segment, it typically gets snapped up by hungry staffers. In terms of leftover ingredients, though, our lead food stylist Katie Stilo will often whip up some treats in the prep kitchen — like her Scene Dock Schnitzel and Apple Cider Doughnut Pancakes — for the talent and staff to enjoy behind the scenes.

When we were deciding which recipes to feature in this book, we thought about the dishes that would inspire that type of mad dash.

We don’t ask world-renowned chefs who come on the show for their restaurant recipes; we ask them for the recipes they make when they’re exhausted on a Sunday after a long week of professional cooking. What do they turn to for comfort? What do they serve their families to show them love? What do they pull out of their back pocket when friends stop by?

Everything in this book is, first and foremost, approachable. The recipes range from no-effort weeknight wonders to special occasion showstoppers, but none contain an overwhelmingly lengthy list of ingredients or steps — we promise. More often than not, you will already have the ingredients and equipment you need for a recipe on hand. But we will show you exciting ways to cook with ingredients you already know and love, and introduce you to some new flavors from around the world, too. Think classic recipes, but with surprising and delightful twists.

A good chunk of this book is reserved for weeknight cooking — because that’s what our segments predominantly highlight — to inspire even our busiest viewers to say, “I could actually make that tonight.” Think soups, salads, pastas, chicken (lots of chicken!), fish and entrée-worthy vegetables. And since grilling is our favorite Plaza pastime, expect a good amount of grilled meats. Entertaining and holidays are also essential parts of our show, so we’ve also got plenty of crowd-pleasing dishes, both sweet and savory. Think dips, savory pies, slow-cooked meats, turkey, starchy sides and cakes (lots of cakes!).

We hope this book offers you a peek at the way we cook and eat — on-screen, backstage and at home — and lets you in on some helpful tricks of the trade.

This is a no-judgment zone. No matter where you are on your cooking journey, we are here to help.

But we do want you to step outside of your comfort zone — at least a little.

We hope you keep this book close for when you’re feeling uninspired and about to reach for the take-out menu — so you reach for this instead. We hope turning to this book at the end of a long workday becomes as second nature to you as turning on our show when you wake up.

We realize what a privilege it is to have access to some of the best chefs and home cooks in the world, and we are so excited to bring you recipes that show off each of their culinary specialties, complete with technique tips and suggested swaps. We hope it empowers you to try something new and become a more assertive cook, willing to experiment and diverge from the recipe.

Above all else, though, we hope this book encourages you to spend more time gathered around the table with your loved ones, sharing a meal together — just like we do every morning.