And who is this super chef Deb Perelman besides from a young and nice Jewish wife and mother residing in New York City?

Deb Perelman is overweight, not skinny as a rail like newly, wispy-thin Rachel Ray. (Perhaps Deb eats too many of her own frittatas?)

Deb Perelman operates out of a mini-kitchen where, in order to cook, she wedges herself between her refrigerator and stove. She doesn’t operate out of million dollar digs like Martha Stewart. Nor does Deb Perelman have legions of help, researchers and assistants like Ms. Stewart.

Deb Perelman is not a professionally trained chef. She never even waitressed. She is just a self-proclaimed, obsessively self- taught cook and photographer.
Whatever she is doing is working; her blog (Smittenkitchen.com) attracts over 8 million visitors per month. And her cookbook is on the New York Times Best-Seller List.

So what makes Deb Perelman such a hot commodity in the fickle world of food preparation?

Her cooking has been described as stepped-up home cooking, utilizing unfussy ingredients aimed at people who don’t necessarily have a lot of time or money. She’s about no-nonsense cooking – about creating and/or finding the best recipe she can for whatever it is she wants to cook. No small task when you consider Google alone has over three million recipes for the perfect birthday cake. In her own words, The Smitten Kitchen is filled with 100 approachable recipes, made with accessible ingredients that exceed your expectations.

One devoted follower notes she takes the fuss out of cooking and that what she is fussy about is making good things simply:  buttered popcorn cookies, picture-perfect pancakes, leek fritters, spaghetti squash and black bean tacos.

And a blog follower says her recipes are something that you would find in your grandmother’s top secret cookbook.

Deb Perelman is also unique in another way – a way that could get a lot of traction as we all are busy making our New Year’s resolutions in earnest. Deb Perelman starts off her day with something she’s not very good at: running on the treadmill. “I’m really bad at it. Really: terrible,” she admits. “Starting my day completely humbled by my inability to run half as long or as fast as these people on the other treadmills ….well, the day only gets better from there.”