Jersey girl is really cooking, on TV and off

SINCE her stint on "Heroes" ended four years ago, Cherry Hill's Ali Larter has produced a son - with actor/husband Hayes MacArthur - and a cookbook, Kitchen Revelry: A Year of Festive Menus from My Home to Yours.

Now she's back on TV, starring opposite Sean Bean in "Legends," a drama about undercover work that premiered Wednesday on TNT. She spoke with Ellen Gray about acting, cooking and why the food show she's developing will be different from all the others.

Q You juggled multiple roles in "Heroes," but in "Legends," you play the FBI suit overseeing Sean Bean's character, who assumes different identities every week. Though it didn't take them long in the pilot to get you out of that suit and into a negligee, did it?

It's like a job requirement, I guess. At first I was like, "Oh, gosh. Do I want to do it?" And then at the end of the day, it's fun to have something up there that's a little bit of candy.

Q Had you been looking to do another series?

I'm looking to play someone I haven't played before. And what was interesting to me about Crystal is she has chosen not to be married. She's chosen not to be a mother. And that's so polar opposite from the life that I lead.

It's interesting to me to play a character who gets to be selfish about her work. She gets to put her life on the line. She gets to risk all things.

Q Any Cherry Hill West reunions in your near future?

I don't know. I wasn't there my senior year. I went to community college for a semester and graduated early. I was on my way to Tokyo [for a modeling job] two weeks before my 18th birthday.

I was ready to go. I had been working so much, starting at the age of 14, that I had kind of a full career by the time I was 16, 17. I had just moved on at that point. I was [supposed] to go to NYU, I deferred for one year, ended up in L.A., acting class, never to go back again.

Q It seems to have worked out. Do you ever have regrets?

No. I feel extremely blessed to do what I do. I haven't chosen a life of stability. I haven't chosen a life that is easy to age in - you know, a career that is easy on women - but I have chosen a life that is really full and exciting and big.

Q Would you want this life for your son?

He won't do it while he's in my house, but if this is something that he desires and he wants to go to school and he wants to learn, I would definitely support that.

One thing that would be a necessity to me would be that he is a creator. I think that in this business, to audition and set yourself up for other people getting to choose your future is not a great way to live. Create your own projects, write your own material, make your own movies. That is something that I would want for him.

Q Do you want that, too?

I do, I do. But for me, more in the food world. I'm developing a cooking show [with the producers of "Top Chef"] and that is what I just love, love, love to do.

Q You also published a cookbook last fall. How's that doing?

Amazing. And it's really taken my life in a totally unexpected direction. Cooking has always been a passion of mine and a hobby, and now it's turning into another career. It's been a lot of hard work, it's been a lot of challenges, it's been a lot of great food, it's been a lot of recipe disasters. But overall it's been really exciting.

Q How do you make a food show stand out? There are so many.

For me, there isn't the show that I want to watch. My show is more of an inspirational/aspirational show, where you take someone and give them the night of their dreams. Someone who's overcome some kind of difficulty in their life. And I go in and I help them create this phenomenal dinner.

Q Do you do a lot of entertaining?

I do a dinner party at my house a minimum once a month. I'll spend the afternoon doing it. It's what I love. I can't wait to go to the farmers' market at 10 a.m.