Today we're launching a new series, the behind-the-scenes story of a major project I've been working on.

At times it's consumed my whole life and even involved my kids.

You said it would take like maybe two or three years to do the cookbook, but I thought it would take

longer.

You thought it would take two or three years is a very long time.

Yeah, but like, there's a lot of stuff to do, like you have to find recipes and you have to make them, take pictures of it, and you have to publish it. And also you're doing a lot of

recipes so it's going to take a long time.

All right, this is not going as well as I had hoped. The sauce has completely cooked off and burnt.

The pan is black and there are pieces of pasta that have broken off and fused to the bottom of the pan.

Becky, how would you describe how this looks?

This kind of looks like a cry for her. Becky, how would you describe how this looks?

This kind of looks like a cry for help.

This is the sportful.

It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman.

Each week on our show we obsess about food to learn more about people. And yes, it's true, I have written a cookbook.

It's always been a dream of mine. This one has been years in the making and it comes out in just two weeks.

When I started working on this cookbook, the most common question I got from friends was,

how do you actually come up with the recipes? I

realized that most people even folks who buy a lot of cookbooks don't know much

about how they're made. As I found out, neither did I. Until I did it I had no idea just how painstaking the process is, how many thousands of tiny decisions would be required,

and how many things could go wrong.

That's why today we're launching anything's possible, a four-part

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