Cosmo's New Kate

(NEW YORK) Katie Lee Joel's recently become a fixture on the red carpet and at the couture shows--but did you know the girl can really cook? The Comfort Table author and The Early Show's food correspondent is taking her culinary talents to Cosmopolitan in January. After meeting Ellen Levine and several Hearst editors last fall at a luncheon, Joel made a fast friend in Cosmo's Kate White.

"I was so nervous!" she said. "I was thinking Devil Wears Prada, but then everyone was so nice. I sat across from Kate White, and I thought she was fantastic. We had an instant bond." After a test-run writing a food piece in the magazine's current November issue (on foods that can seduce-naturally), White invited Joel to lunch and made the offer a bit more permanent. This is the magazine's first food column. "I'm so excited. When the magazine first started, they never would have had something about food, about women being in the kitchen. But we can have it all!" The column will cover everything from Super Bowl food to dinner with girlfriends. As for husband Billy Joel's favorite treats? "He loves my meatloaf!" Joel dished. "And any kind of cobbler."

Joel's working on a follow-up book to The Comfort Table that will debut next October. "Yigal Azrouel is a great friend of mine," she said. "When I shot my last cookbook, he supplied all the clothes. We called it the look book cookbook-where fashion meets food!"
EMILY GYBEN