Doing a phone interview with sister chefs Jill and Jewels Elmore is like refereeing a tag team match. One punctuated by bouts of laughter.

The two, who grew up in a household of cooks in Arcadia, Calif., and now live in Santa Monica, each with a husband and one child (Jill, boy, 2; Jewels, girl, 14 months), still do everything together. They work together as personal chefs to stars and just folks alike. "We lived together before we were married and we'd still like to, but I don't think our husbands would go for that," said Jewels. "We're pretty much inseparable."

But the two, whose new book, "The Family Chef" (Celebra, hardcover, $27.95), was released earlier this month, do have differing, but complementary, skill sets and, in the book, use these to convey their philosophy.

They believe in fresh, local, seasonal food, and that it's worth the work and expense if at all possible. They believe in families cooking together and eating together. They believe in making use of every scrap and organizing your cooking schedule and your kitchen to assure that the right foods are consumed. "My husband doesn't think we have anything to eat unless it's right in front of his face. If you put cut-up fruit in a glass container in the front of the fridge, it's easy to see, appealing because the work is done, and that's what they'll eat instead of chips," said Jewels.

Asked how they worked together on the book, Jill jumps in with, "I did most of it." Both break into guffaws. "That is a flat-out lie," retorts Jewels.

Jill is the practical one, the one who "does the nuts and bolts" and makes sense of Jewels' "cockamamie ideas," said Jewels. Jewels is the one who'll fall in love with some oddball ingredient and insist on using it. "Jewels is amazingly creative. Sometimes, she wants to do things that are a little labor-intensive, then we figure out how to do it (with less work) and it comes out amazing."

In some cases in the book, they've offered Jill's version, Jewels' version side-by-sides of the same recipe, so the reader can choose whether to, for example, chop every piece in precise little cubes for the chop salad, or just hack 'em up as seems easiest.

The two grew up with a mother who would be listening to a radio cooking show in the car and stop on the side of the road to copy down a recipe. Their grandparents, of Mexican and Jewish descent, lived with them, and there was always food, food, food, cooking, cooking, cooking, talking, talking, talking around the kitchen table. "Our home was the gathering place. You wanted to be there," said Jewels.

This upbringing led them to an apprenticeship with a private chef (after having worked as "very bad waitresses" for a while) and then, 18 years ago, to found their own company. They have cooked for Jennifer Aniston (who wrote the foreword), John Travolta and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But their conviction is that any family can learn how to prepare healthful, unfussy dishes and increase their closeness at the same time.

They enjoy being personal chefs primarily because they get to see and hear the reaction of the family members to the food they serve. Listening, they realized that while there are lots of great family cookbooks out there (and they use many of them), people needed help. Their solution was to add "Smart Ideas" to each recipe they share: How to use the lentils you've cooked for a soup to also make a second meal, how to involve husbands and children in cooking, how to cook seasonally and locally.

"If you're going to make a chicken chile relleno, make a little extra chicken and next time, make fried rice with it, or sandwiches. It's a huge time saver and money saver, finding ways to reuse ingredients so you're not wasting stuff," said Jill.

"You can get kids to eat things they wouldn't normally eat by involving them in the process. If they cleaned the green beans, they'll be proud and more excited about eating them," said Jill.

"If they're not ready to use knives, just let them tear up the lettuce or snap the ends off the beans," said Jewels.

Shopping for seasonal, fresh foods at farmers markets and such also encourages family members to enjoy fruits and vegetables. "I'll have people say, 'Wow! That was so delicious! What did you do to those vegetables?' I'm also embarrassed because I've done so little. It's just the freshness that makes the difference," said Jill.

For the cook, playing with new ingredients keeps things interesting. "Jill and I are having a love affair with quinoa (KEEN-wah, a South American grain available at health-food stores and Whole Foods markets). There's this really beautiful red quinoa that you can saute with mushrooms as a side dish. We feed it to our babies," said Jewels.

Cooking at home can assure a more healthful diet. "You know exactly what you're getting when you make it yourself — how much fat, how much salt, how much sugar. Once you get in practice of lending flavor with less of these, it becomes easier and easier," said Jill.

One of their convictions is that recipes are just guides. "If it calls for cilantro and you don't like cilantro, use something else. The more you experiment, the more confidence you have," said Jill.

Growing up near Los Angeles in a multicultural environment, the sisters learned to love many kinds of foods. This shows in a recipe collection that ranges from Asia to the Middle East in its influences.

"I think we have a unique perspective in being professional chefs that need to provide restaurant-quality food that's going to be eaten by families at home," said Jewels. "We chose this title, 'The Family Chef,' because we wanted to empower people to be the personal chef for their families. It's a role that needs to be taken. It's so important, and we have seen firsthand the huge effect eating from your home can have."