It's all about family in Judd's book, TV show

By Thayer Wine
Gannett News Service

JUDD

"Leave that to somebody else," Judd says. Her focus is to "delve into the changing face of the family table."

The hourlong show is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Sunday, Judd's 58th birthday. It dovetails with her thoughts and philosophies of life in her new book, "Naomi's Breakthrough Guide, 20 Choices To Transform Your Life" (Simon & Schuster, $21), which was released Monday (see www.naomijudd.com).

Both the book and the show explore family bonds as they evolve from relationships built around the kitchen table, and the safety each person feels in exploring his own path.

"This book is about the fact that we don't know our beliefs, values or passions. People today aren't defined from within — they aren't living their own lives. They allow the media to tell them who they are," Judd says.

"I believe that when we have supper together we share the events of our lives. It's those stories we share ... that give kids those beliefs," she explains. In her book, Judd tells some of these stories and stories from others she's met along her life's path, to try to show how people can live their lives more fully and realize their own passions.

The book is not about food, but the television show is, at least in part.

Both explore self-discovery and family relationships.

In the TV show, she shows other families and her own doing things relating to cooking to develop binding family memories. "We're a pretty typical family, though our circumstances are extraordinary," Judd says.

Judd cooks plenty and has written a cookbook, but in this show, she travels to the home where she was born and raised and where her mother, Polly Judd, still lives in Ashland, Ky.

"My mom makes everything from scratch and is a passionate cook," she says.

She also visits her daughter, actress Ashley Judd, playing Maggie in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway.

"She moved to this rented house in the countryside with her quilts, old cast-iron skillets, five cats, two dogs and her good china," Naomi Judd says.

Ashley, who, according to her mother, takes baking as seriously as she does acting, shows us on the show her skills in making a lattice-crusted berry pie while wearing her slinky nightgown and apron.