What Makes Ariel Fox's First Cookbook Spice Kitchen Unique

The FOX cooking competition "Hell's Kitchen" has been going strong for 20 seasons. The premise is simple: Two teams of chefs compete against each other for the grand prize of the position of head chef at one of the restaurants belonging to Gordon Ramsay, the program's occasionally foul-mouthed celebrity chef host. Fans of the program will likely remember chef Ariel Fox, who was a contestant on the show's sixth season and the winner of season 18 (via Santa Cruz Sentinel). After winning the competition, Fox went on to become the vice president of culinary for restaurants Del Frisco's, Dos Caminos, and Del Frisco's Grill in New York, per her Twitter bio.

And now, Fox has taken the next step in her professional culinary journey and penned her first cookbook: "Spice Kitchen: Healthy Latin and Caribbean Cuisine." The new cookbook will be published by Penguin Random House and available beginning July 5. The recipes chef Fox created for the new book are inspired by the cuisines of countries such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Ecuador, and many more.

According to a statement sent to Tasting Table, Ariel Fox's new cookbook "Spice Kitchen: Healthy Latin and Caribbean Cuisine" features 110 recipes influenced by LatinX and Caribbean cooking. To compile the recipes, Fox — who turned down an offer to head the new Hell's Kitchen restaurant in Las Vegas in order to focus on forging her own path in New York City — drew upon "recipes and techniques that have been passed down from her mother, grandmother, and ancestors that she will pass down to her daughters."

It was important for Fox to honor this heritage while incorporating her own unique viewpoint into each dish. "Ariel made the decision to change her lifestyle, learn about nutrition, and get in the greatest shape of her life while still maintaining a connection to the foods she grew up eating," a description on the Penguin Random House website reads. "Now she's here to share her decades of experience and knowledge with you."

Another important element to the debut cookbook? Fox wanted to make sure there were recipes for every budget, diet, and lifestyle, so as not to exclude any of her fans or readers.

With a foreword by Gordon Ramsay, the cookbook is priced at $35 and can be found online and in stores at retailers like Barnes & Nobel, Amazon, and Powell's.