THE HOLLYWOOD COOKBOOK | Jackie Zabel & Morgan Most

Our New Home

Please visit our new website for "The Hollywood Cookbook." It has lot of new information about the book and many great new photos. 

http://thehollywoodcookbook.com

Project Overview

The Hollywood Cookbook celebrates the art of casual and formal entertaining “Hollywood” style with a concept that is as simple as it is elegant. With a fall 2006 release, this high-style cookbook connects the art of acting with the art of living well, all done to benefit deserving charities.

The concept takes the traditional cookbook with new recipes and ideas and puts a grand spin on it. The book spotlights the culinary creations of twenty celebrities who have joined the project in support of their favorite cause. Sharing their family recipes and secrets to cooking success with our readers, our well-known and well-respected celebrities have contributed recipes for a themed meal and within the context of those menus in the book is a discussion of their favorite charity.

It's a seamless package of Hollywood, cooking and charity, tapping into the interest of an adoring public which aspires to duplicate the stars’ meals and desserts.  Each charity will receive a portion of the book’s profit and a wealth of publicity. Delicious cuisine and compassion for a cause, it’s a potent combination.

The book allows celebrities to be seen in a different light and so many wonderful people have joined the cause -- from Jane Kaczmarek and Paige Hemmis to Ron Howard and Michael Chiklis and so many others. All the names are listed in the column to the right.

Besides working with charity-conscious celebrities, we've even been fortunate enough to add an entire celebrity chef component including such culinary superstars as Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, Joachim Splichal, Nick Stellino, Rocco Dispirito and Michael Cimarusti.

The Hollywood Cookbook is passion project of two women -- Morgan Most and Jackie Zabel.  We both are part of Hollywood and you can learn more about us by clicking on the links above.

We're so pleased to be able to say that The Hollywood Cookbook is now in design and lay-out stage.

UPDATE: As we head toward the November publication, the final pieces are coming together. Recently, Hollywood's famous Kitchen Academy and its dedicated staff and students meticulously prepared and tested each recipe. Staging the recipes for an elaborate three-day photo shoot, food stylist Andy Sheen-Turner acted as the “set designer” of the celebrity culinary creations for THE HOLLYWOOD COOKBOOK. Serving as the DPs, photographers Craig Mathew and Ziva Santop who work regularly with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and many other Hollywood organizations, captured amazing images of the mouth watering, aromatic dishes. One of the students that day, Ernest Miller, captured some of the fun (and some photos) in his blog, Corante.

The Hollywood Cookbook invites corporations and individuals to come on board as a sponsor or a partner in the project. Besides Kitchen Academy, another example would be Maurice Lacroix Swiss Watches which donated the seed money to get the project started. In addition to the obvious benefits, sponsors will receive grateful acknowledgement in the book and publication of their company logo.

We are delighted to have your interest and hope you'll spend some time exploring the site to get to know the idea better.  We think that when you do, you will come to love it as we do, and want to help us work for its success. Thank you!

Jamie Gwen Joins THE HOLLYWOOD COOKBOOK

We're pleased to welcome our latest addition to THE HOLLYWOOD COOKBOOK team -- Chef Jamie Gwen. She's a Los Angeles based television and radio personality whose passion for good food and good cooking combines with her enthusiasm to bring her message to the broadest possible audience.

Chef Jamie Gwen graduated from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York, then continued to pursue her career under the tutelage of many world-renowned chefs.

Here in Los Angeles, her weekly live radio show can be heard weekly on Talk Radio 790 KABC and will soon be syndicated nationwide.

Jamie also has a long standing association with the Home Shopping Network.

Jamie supports multiple charities and loves to volunteer her culinary talents to Girl's Inc. of Orange County, inspiring girls to be Smart, Strong and Bold!

Jamie has authored three cookbooks of her own, the latest called "Good Food for Good Times."

Welcome, Jamie. Things are really cooking now!

How The Hollywood Cookbook Became Real

Home and Hollywood.  Without ever knowing that we would someday embark on this project, we were living in both these worlds.  We met when our daughters were in kindergarten twelve years ago and unknowingly, saw each other again at a Hollywood reception the same night.  As moms and creative artists in the entertainment industry, we found ourselves trying to make the most of both of these worlds.  Along the way, we became great friends. And as friends will do, we often found ourselves floating some big ideas. This one stuck. 

We had both observed the outpouring of love and respect  that fans have for celebrities and we talked about how great it would be to harness that positive energy  to help people who could use a little of it in their own lives.  The idea of this cookbook was born.

Implementation was a new challenge.  We were trying to put together a model that really hasn’t been done before.  Instead of the book benefiting one charity, as many of these cookbooks have done in the past, we wanted to benefit lots of charities.  Instead of a single recipe, we wanted to really have the opportunity to share an entire meal from each celebrity taking part. 

We also wanted to highlight the different charities that these talented actors and actresses take time out of their busy schedules to support.  And we wanted to know and appreciate why. As we’ve gotten to know the different charities, it’s now easy to see the attraction.  From disease fighting and support, to children’s causes, to environmental concerns, to entertaining the sick, and providing camps for the less fortunate, these are all amazing non-profits.  Art of the Elysium brings people art programs to encourage healing.  St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital never turns a child away.  The Tree People organization inspires people to take care of the environment.  Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s Foundation hopes to find a cure for a cruel disease.  The Boys and Girls Clubs of America gives kids a place to hang out and a sense of community.  And that’s just a few of the charities named in this cookbook.

We have discovered many things along the way.  Some things were easier than expected, a few harder.  What was easy was finding good-hearted celebrities.  Contrary to what the tabloids would have us believe, these people are in the public eye because they are great role models.   We are very proud to follow their lead in this book, and not just in their philanthropic choices, but also on their culinary adventures. Someone else along the way told us that food brings people together.  It’s true.  Being able to gather and enjoy favorite recipes does help us remember to celebrate the good life we all enjoy.  We truly hope that feeling of celebration comes out of this cookbook.  We’d love nothing more than family and friends to enjoy a meal from the book in the same joie de vive spirit that the celebrities offered it. 

We were so delighted when the chefs at Kitchen Academy confirmed what we suspected, that we actually had a book that also works from a “foodie” point of view. Many, many people made the cookbook possible in ways large and small. 

This was not a solo journey, by any means.  From our generous sponsors, to student chefs, to talented photographers and food stylists, to our great publishing team, to our diligent legal, hard-working accounting, and innovative marketing folks.  And, of course, there’s the understanding and bolstering we received from family and friends. 

We are indebted to all of you for indulging us this grand idea and for all the take out you ate while we were chasing our culinary dreams. We’ve always approached everyone involved with the notion that this project would be a win-win situation. 

Now that it’s all come together, we realize we have built this very special community within a community – one with such good feelings.  And we are hoping the same for you, the reader.  We wish you a lot of great food enjoyed with the accompanying good karma of helping a lot of can-do charities that are trying to change the world for the better.  Bon appetite!

Jackie & Morgan

Our Celebrities

Our celebrities have uniquely decided to help us harness the public's fascination to help make the world a better place. 

When we chose celebrities for The Hollywood Cookbook, we asked the charities if they had special ambassadors that would like to serve as their spokespeople. As an example, one of our very first to commit to this project was an Oscar winner and one of America's most beloved stars both in front of and behind the camera, Ron Howard. As an example, Ron will be providing the recipes for an "Casual After-Work Dinner."

Off to the side of this web-site, you can see the complete list of celebrities who are participating in making The Hollywood Cookbook a reality.

Our Charities

Our corporate sponsorship model allows us to fund not just one charity as has been done in the past, but to divide it equally among the participating celebrity choices. This way the charities benefit two-fold: one, the organizations benefit from the actual monies collected, and two, the non-profits receive recognition from a published celebrity endorsement.

Celebrity involvement has a long history of helping foundations achieve great results. There is no end to the need for charitable support in the world and there are so many good causes to bring to people's attention.  Among those charities which have already been paired with celebrities in The Hollywood Cookbook are:

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch

These are just a few of the people in the non-profit world who will be seeing help for their causes as a result of The Hollywood Cookbook.  Others include all the others you see listed to the side of this screen.  All of them are fully-functional links so if you want to check out their good work for yourself, please do so.  We know they'd appreciate it.  Thank you.

Entertainment Industry Sponsors

Donors demand and expect accountablility and we are lucky enough to have the Entertainment Industry Foundation managing our donor fund.  "The Hollywood Cookbook Charities Fund" will see that the designated proceeds from cookbook sales are directed to the participating charities.  CFO Merrily Newton has personally become involved to supervise the distribution of funds to the twenty charities involved.  

We've also been proud to have the active support of the award-winning trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter. The following letter from Matthew King, VP Editorial Development, states their interest in supporting our book in a way "that would leverage The Hollywood Reporter's trademark and brand equity."

Hollywood Supports Hollywood!

Additionally, the letter states:

"The Hollywood Reporter is exploring the idea of featuring selected content from the proposed book in its newspages  and may be of assistance in securing talent and promoting the book to its industry audience."

The Hollywood Cookbook is proud of its association with The Hollywood Reporter.  This relationship represents the proof that the desire to create good in the world  and to create business at the same time are not mutually exclusive.  If you have a new and creative way to bring your own synergy to this process, by all means contact us.

Silverback Books

Silverback Books is the publisher of The Hollywood Cookbook ... and there couldn't be a better fit from content to delivery...

Publishing Specialized on Cooking

The company specializes in books that have a youthful, lively approach to food, cooking, lifestyle and wellness topics.

Publisher Howard Cohl sparked to this project from the day he heard it and has been a great advocate. Project manager Sarah Arak brings her terrific design and layout expertise to every aspect of what we're doing. Plus, a shout-out to Amy Inouye for our early cover design you see at the beginning of this blog.

We're proud to be a part of Silverback Books. Everything they do is filled with contemporary, simple recipes and vivid color photographs that will whet your appetite — and make your mouth water . . . just like THE HOLLYWOOD COOKBOOK!

About the Authors

JACKIE ZABEL

For Jackie Zabel, good things definitely come in threes.  She's a triple threat as a writer, mother of three children, and someone who holds three college degrees.

Jackie often works writing and/or editing on her husband, writer-producer Bryce Zabel's projects.  She takes an active business role in running their business, Stellar Productions, managing legal, financial, scheduling and creative issues. When Bryce was elected Chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2001, Jackie took on “first lady” duties.  She attended many industry functions as well as multiple Emmy Awards ceremonies.  She also served as a founding member of the “ATAS Cares” committee, a group committed to good works in the entertainment community.  She wrote the script for the inaugural event, a fashion show benefiting a charity called “Dress for Success.”

In the summer of 2001, Jackie was the only woman to have a writing credit on the major Disney summer release, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire."  She was delighted to have taken part as it fulfilled a childhood dream of hers to write a Disney movie Jackie began her career as a journalist in Los Angeles.  She served as a news writer-producer, and fill-in anchor at various local stations including KCBS-TV, KCOP-TV, and KHJ-AM. 

Since both of Jackie's parents are medical doctors, it's not surprising that she found herself producing health news at KCBS as well as Cable Health Network.  Also, she earned recognition from the Los Angeles Press Club for her work during that period As Jackie began her family, she also found success transitioning exclusively into dramatic writing with a maternity-themed spec script called "Labor of Love," which sold to Universal over a weekend.   Jackie continued with a first look deal, working on a television pilot resurrection of the "Charlie's Angels" franchise. 

Female-themes remained a specialty for Jackie as she wrote a television movie for NBC entitled "Camp Mom."   She also optioned an original script called "Robot Mom" to Nickelodeon.  Jackie also has written or developed stories for television episodes including, "The Crow:  Stairway to Heaven," and "M.A.N.T.I.S."   

Jackie’s education includes a Masters' in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California and Psychology and Journalism bachelor's degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.   She graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

 

MORGAN MOST

Morgan Most graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles with a Bachelor's degree of Fine Arts in Theater.  Shortly after graduating, she pursued a career in acting, and almost immediately start landing roles in numerous television drama and sitcoms such as "Vegas," "When the Whistle Blows," "Dallas," and "Simon & Simon."

It was during one of her guest appearances on the TV show, "Happy Days," that Morgan met actor Donny Most.  Two years later, they were married.

Morgan continued to work as an actress, appearing in such projects as the TV miniseries,  "My Wicked, Wicked Ways," the story of Errol Flynn, and the feature film, "The Man who wasn't there," co-starring with Jeffrey Tambor and William Forsythe.

When the Mosts decided to start a family, Morgan opted to devote herself full time to her children, volunteering at their schools, sports teams, and extracurricular activities.  Coming from a family dedicated to public service, she has always been involved in community causes, supporting many local charities.

Cooking with her daughters over the years has been a favorite pastime.   Working on this cookbook has been a gratifying mix of giving back to the community as well as enjoying one of her hobbies.

Contact Information

Good Looking Cooking can be reached at:

(818) 991-1654   Office
(818) 889-2351  Fax

Jackie Zabel
Partner
jackiezee@sbcglobal.net

Morgan Most
Partner
MHMforGLC@aol.com

Leslie Feibleman
Marketing Director
(949) 500-5962  Cell
lfeibleman@newportbeachfilmfest.com