Endearingly bonding with your family and friends over your shared sentimental memories can often be one of the most important and fulfilling experiences in your life. Maintaining and sharing that powerful connection with people not only in your community, but also around the world, is a captivating way to relate to people of diverse backgrounds and societies. Actress Haylie Duff is enthrallingly emphasizing the importance of not only bonding with her family, but also personally associating with her fans, as they appreciate how food draws them together. She creatively highlights the importance of how recipes help people understand together through her popular blog, cookbook and Cooking Channel docu-series of the same name, ‘The Real Girl’s Kitchen.’ After Season 1 was one of the highest rated shows for the network last year, the actress, cookbook author and host will be premiering the series’ second season on Saturday, April 25 at 1pm ET.

Hosted by Duff and based on her popular namesake blog and cookbook, The Cooking Channel’s ‘The Real Girl’s Kitchen’ takes viewers into the actress and author’s kitchen and world. She shares her personal recipes, many of which she personally created, as well as the stories that coincide with her developing and eating them with her family and friends. A native Texas girl at heart, Duff blends her Southern roots with her busy life in Hollywood for the perfect combination of food, family, travel, work and fun. The lifestyle docu-series follows her on her daily adventures in Los Angeles, as well as in New York, where she always finds inspiration.

Duff generously took the time recently to talk about filming the upcoming second season of the Cooking Channel’s popular lifestyle series, ‘The Real Girl’s Kitchen,’ as well as writing her blog and cookbook of the same name, during an exclusive phone interview. Among other things, the actress, cookbook author and host discussed how she began entertaining as a cook, which led to her creating her blog, book and television series, when she was younger, as her family has always enjoyed bonding over food; how she includes her latest recipes on her blog and show after she experiments for herself and her family in her kitchen at home, and decides which types of food to feature, based on the type of feedback she receives from her fans; and how she appreciates the fact that her fans have embraced her recipes, particularly during the first season of her Cooking Channel show, so much that the network renewed it for the upcoming second season.

ShockYa (SY): You’re a self-taught cook who started cooking for your friends and family, who embraced your unique recipes. How did your life experiences influence your decision to start entertaining as a cook?

Haylie Duff (HD): Well, I first fell in love with cooking when I was younger. My mom always cooked, because she wanted to and loved it. I grew up in a very foodie family who loved to entertain in the house. So I think that need and want to entertain in my home developed very early for me.

Getting into creating a show and a book, and all these wonderful things that have since come from them, really came from my blog, The Real Girl’s Kitchen. When I posted my first couple of recipes, I was learning how to cook and be comfortable in my kitchen. I had no idea it would turn into anything like what it is now. I was just really sharing my recipes with people.

Then a few years ago, when social media was really getting started, sharing my recipes was my way of connecting with, and talking to, people. Pretty soon, more and more people started following my blog, and it then started growing slow and steadily into this wonderful thing.

SY: As your friends and family began enjoying your recipes, you decided to share them on The Real Girl’s Kitchen blog, like you just mentioned. Why do you enjoy blogging about your recipes-do you hope to inspire them, as well as your audience, to try different meal ideas they may never had considered before?

HD: Well, I think there’s something really special about it. I’ve said this before-there’s something very intimate about feeding someone. I think when you’re showing people how to make things that they’re going to eat, there’s nothing more intimate than that. There’s a trust that really happens there, too. People will think, okay, I’ve tried four or five of her recipes, and everything was really good. Since they begin developing that trust in you, you’re not going to steer them wrong.

The blog and show both take a bunch of different forms, but they’re very true to my life. Sometimes I’m working a lot, and don’t have time to post recipes for a month or two. Then sometimes I’ll have two weeks off, and I’ll be blogging almost every day.

I think that’s something people actually like about my website-they know that it’s me who runs it. I don’t have anyone else working for it, and there’s no one else posting it, except for me. I think it’s true-to-life, which is nice. People aren’t easily fooled, so for them to know it’s really me who’s running the blog makes a really big difference.

SY: Since you often create recipes through trial and error, what is some of the most helpful advice you give to your fans, from those who are just starting cooking to those who are experienced in the kitchen, as they’re making their own recipes? What has been some of the best advice you’ve received about cooking from your friends and family, as well as chefs you admire?

HD: When I’m creating recipes, it’s really for when I’m cooking dinner for (fiancé) Matt (Rosenberg) and I, and it turns out really great. Then I snap a couple of photos of it, and share them on the website. The process is really organic as I go.

As far as the people who have influenced me, I’m constantly being inspired as I’m watching most of the chefs on the Cooking Channel and Food Network. I’ll pick up great little tips here and there, and I love watching Bobby Flay and Ina Garten. I’m open to learn from everyone, so I’m constantly taking away great tidbits here and there.

SY: Besides writing for your blog, you’ve also written the cook book, ‘The Real Girl’s Kitchen.’ Were you always interested in sharing your recipes in a book? How did writing for your blog first influence the way you approached writing the book?

HD: One of the best things about my website and Instagram is that I receive immediate feedback from people. If I’m making something and people say, “I can’t believe she’s eating that,” or, “Wow, that looks so good,” it helps me understand what people enjoy and like to see on my site.

But I’m also a pretty adventurous eater, so I think people visit my website and Instagram page to see the things I eat. I put a caviar pizza the other day, and I received the biggest response from people, who were asking, “What is that? How do you make that?” So there are influences all over, so I’m appreciative of that.

SY: Besides including your recipes in your book, you also included stories and memories that coincide with your experiences making each dish. How have those experiences influenced the way you approach creating and cooking your recipes?

HD: For me, the stories were almost as important as the recipes as I was writing the book. Cooking for, and sharing a meal with, someone is a very intimate thing. So I really wanted whoever’s reading the book to feel like we were friends by the end of it, and that they knew me, and I had shared parts of my life with them. It’s really about building a rapport and a trust with the people who are reading the book or the blog.

So it was exciting for me to share those stories. When I get together and share a meal with people, that’s what we do-we sit around and tell stories, and share information about our lives. So I think those two things go hand-in-hand. So as I was creating the book, I wanted to include those personal stories.

SY: Season 2 of your cooking show, ‘The Real Girl’s Kitchen,’ is set to premiere on April 25 on the Cooking Channel, after the first season of the series was one of the highest rated shows for the network last year. What does it mean to you that audiences have embraced the show? Did you interact with your viewers from the first season to garner ideas on what type of food they wanted to see featured on the upcoming episodes?

HD: It’s been amazing that people have been responding to the show the way that they did. It’s something that I’m grateful for all the time. I really feel as though my audience has grown with me, from the blog to the book to the show, versus just coming out with the show. So I think also developing the blog and releasing the book has really made a big difference in my connection with my audience. I’m happy that I get to go to work and be creative, and do something that I love, every single day. That fact is not lost on me-I’m so grateful for the way people have responded to the show, and I hope I get to continue filming it for a long time.

Written by: Karen Benardello