Usually, however, she found herself frustrated by recipes with long lists of hard-to-find ingredients and instructions she often did not understand.

Not one to avoid a challenge, Fox spent five years collecting recipes and advice from 100 of the country's top restaurants and chefs, 10 from each of 10 major cities known for destination dining.

The result, Impress for Less! Finally . . . Terrific Recipes from the Finest Restaurants You Can Really Make at Home (John Wiley), shows home cooks how they, too, can prepare these signature dishes for family and friends.

Working with the chefs' advice and consent, Fox adapted the recipes, re-creating them at home with ingredients readily available in most supermarkets, using shortcut cooking methods to trim prep time and labor.

The adapted recipes, presented with simple, straightforward instructions, give the cook the option of using the modified version or following the chef's original. The entree on today's menu, for instance, can be made with Muscovy duck breasts, as in chef Martin Hamann's original recipe, or with chicken, in Fox's less-costly version.

Each recipe comes with explanations and a guide to finding unusual or regional ingredients. There are notes on substitutions, and recommendations for wines or other beverages (one economical, one more extravagant) to serve with each dish.

But that prompts the question: How did Fox get 100 top chefs to cooperate on a cookbook?

Well, she started by asking nicely. And having her television credits - more than 10 years' hawking products from cookware to cosmetics on QVC - might have helped some, but, she said, not all that much.

"Chefs don't give out their recipes that readily, and I wasn't in the food business - they didn't know me," she said, reflecting on the task that she described as the hardest thing she'd ever done.

"I had to wear them down with passion, persistence and integrity. Sometimes I'd have to call at 3 a.m. when they finished in the kitchen."

Still, when Fox turns up her high-voltage charm, her enthusiasm is contagious.

Anyone who has seen the ebullient Fox on the West Chester-based shopping channel will understand how persuasive a saleswoman she can be.

It's hard to say no. And few chefs did, especially after she scored a major coup by getting two famed New York chefs to participate.

"Once I got Daniel [Boulud] and Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] to agree, it was a lot easier to get others on board," Fox recalled.

Ultimately, however, it was agreement with her concept that brought many chefs into the fold.

"I couldn't believe how often chefs would say, 'I get your idea, because I can't work out of other chefs' cookbooks, either.' "

Now chefs are asking to be included in Fox's next planned book - which will include some of her own recipes.

It's a project she'll begin this spring, juggling it with negotiations to host her own lifestyle TV show built on the Impress for Less theme, and a newsletter and Web site (www.impressforless.com) already in place for her fans.

As for the current book, Fox's recipe selections and adaptations reflect the easy elegance she favors for entertaining.