Getting Sauced (How I Learned Everything I Know About Food From Working in TV)

Karen Katz's memoir, Getting Sauced, is a fascinating, flavor-filled journey from humble culinary beginnings to the glittering and intense world of high-profile cooking shows.

As executive producer of Emeril Live during its glory days, Karen Katz witnessed all the backstage chaos, drama, and intrigue as the show’s growing pains were splayed out like a butterflied leg of lamb. Her memoir, Getting Sauced, goes behind-the-scenes in the wild world of food television production to give the reader a seat at the VIP table as she shares the dish behind each dish.

But her story isn’t a straight line from culinary school to cooking show producer. Karen grew up in Long Island, the daughter of a woman who thought that a combination of Lipton Soup Mix and orange juice made the best basting liquid. Her journey from Mrs. Paul’s Fish Sticks to Michelin star dinners takes the audience along for a glutton-to-glamour ride from Sunday family take-outs of Moo Goo Gai Pan to the Swiss Alps for spit-roasted wild boar, and eventually into the Food Network kitchens where she learned all the secrets of how to prep a turducken for television. 

Along the way, encounter a culinary Who’s Who: Emeril Lagasse, Julia Child, Bobby Flay, Susan Feniger, Jacques Pepin, Jean Georges Vongerichten, Buddy Valastro, Martha Stewart, and more, to name drop a few. Each in their own way taught Karen not only how to cook, but how to cook with love and enthusiasm.