MADE FROM SCRATCH

Anyone familiar with Food Network personality Sandra Lee knows she has a flouncy, upbeat delivery that matches her "semi-homemade" style of cooking. Like her confections, she's fresh and airy, although nowhere near as annoyingly bubbly as fellow shortcut-cook Rachael Ray. Lee's trademark is combining home-style cooking with elegance, and, as her biography makes clear, it was the combination of growing up fast in a hardscrabble atmosphere and her aspirations of someday transcending her humble surroundings that led to this merger of sensibilities. As a television personality, Lee is a natural speaker, but the narrative here is much more poignant and revelatory than her TV fluff. Her story is not as saccharine (no pun intended) as one might think. J.S.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 08]