Q. What are you reading?

A. Right now I'm really into "When You Are Engulfed in Flames," by David Sedaris. I read every Sedaris book. I find certain authors I like and read everything they write. He makes you realize how normal your life was or is. I also always have a stack of cookbooks by my bed. One I have now is "How to Cook Everything," by Mark Bittman. It's kind of like "Joy of Cooking" was years ago. ... Whenever I read cookbooks I learn something all the time that I use in my everyday world. The other is a great new book — and how can you not buy a book called "Fat" — by Jennifer McLagan. It's about cooking things that contain a lot of fat.

Q. How did you get hooked on Sedaris?

A. The first book of his I read was "Me Talk Pretty One Day." If I think back, he came and gave a speech at the Maui Cultural Center here years ago ... and when I went and saw him I had to hold my face I was laughing so hard. The only other time that happened was at a Steve Martin concert in the '60s. So then I just started reading all of them.

Q. Like Sedaris, is your work based on your upbringing, and will we see that in your new cookbook coming out in the Spring?

A. My approach to my books is very much about life experiences. When I grew up we had the same protein every night of the week ... so my new book is chaptered by the days of the week and the proteins we had. I'm evoking my own life experience, which happened in my first book, too. I think anything you do becomes your life experience and when you create something that's bound in a hardcover it can't help but give people a sense of who you are.