In Octo­ber 1993, a tiny start-up called the Food Net­work debuted to lit­tle notice. Twen­ty years lat­er, it is in 100 mil­lion homes, earns over half a bil­lion dol­lars a year in prof­it, and fea­tures a galaxy of stars whose faces and names are as famil­iar to us as our own fam­i­ly’s. Based upon exten­sive inside access, doc­u­ments, and inter­views with hun­dreds of exec­u­tives, stars, bit play­ers, and employ­ees all up and down the lad­der, Allen Salk­in’s book is an exhil­a­rat­ing roller­coast­er ride from chaos to con­quest — and some­times back again. As Salkin takes us inside the con­fer­ence rooms, stu­dios, homes, restau­rants, and after-hours meet­ings, From Scratch illu­mi­nates the peo­ple we thought we knew — and the ones we nev­er knew about — in this irre­sistible sto­ry of the inter­sec­tion between busi­ness, tele­vi­sion, pop cul­ture, food, and the Amer­i­can audience.