Photo Section

The spinach and crab dip night.

Enjoying our wedding day. Ed was twenty-six, but I wasn’t old enough to legally drink yet. Don’t tell anyone.

This is the first year Wolfie played as an official member of Van Halen, and you can see that I am trying to look happy about it.

Wolfie was playing bass with Tremonti, and it was the first time Ed and I sat in the audience together and watched him play in front of a crowd. We kept squeezing each other all night.

Before a Van Halen show. I am the proud mom, and Wolfie is wearing his “I’m putting up with my mom” face.

I know Mrs. Van Halen loved me, but look at the side-eye she’s giving me.

Mr. Van Halen and Ed at the piano that I still have.

Wolfie and his “oma,” Mrs. Van Halen.

In the kitchen with Aunt Adeline and Aunt Norma the week before Ed and I got married. The whole family had come to LA, and we cooked and laughed together.

With my buddy Dexter, who is always watching over me.

Pregnant and building our dream house. Ed was so happy; he couldn’t wait for the baby to arrive.

I am six months pregnant, and Ed is playing the song that would become “316” on my belly.

Me and Wolfie. He’s a little less than a year old.

The proud parents at Wolfie’s high school graduation.

At the Hollywood Bowl before the Van Halen show in 2015. We didn’t know it then, but this turned out to be one of the last two shows the band played. My dream was always to see Ed play the Hollywood Bowl, and he did it with Wolfie.

At Zuma Beach in 1975 with my brothers, Patrick and David, and I wish I could tell that fifteen-year-old girl she’s perfect the way she is.

The famous Elton John boots I wore on One Day at a Time.

The theater in Wilmington with my parents, who came to see me give a talk, after which we all went to my Aunt Adeline’s for dinner.

The extended Bertinelli family in my Aunt Adeline’s basement kitchen, which inspired all of my cooking dreams.

Three generations—my great-great-grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my grandmother—with Maria’s gelato cart in Lanzo Torinese outside of Turin, Italy.

Tom and I finally finding the Trevi Fountain after arriving in Rome very jet-lagged.

The little winery in Tuscany where I had lasagna for the first time with béchamel sauce. My mother never forgave me for changing her recipe.

Journaling in the Hotel Eden bar in Rome. Every entry says, “I love it here.”

On the train to Florence, researching where we are going to dine.

In the Food Network kitchens with my first official chef’s coat that my producer, Mary Beth, gave me.

The two Emmys I was fortunate enough to win in 2019. Come and get me, Imposter Syndrome.

My happy place—shooting Valerie’s Home Cooking with this amazing crew.

Angelina Bertinelli and Maria Francesca Possio Crosa—my grandmother and great-grandmother.

My parents—my mom is seventeen and my dad is twenty. Crazy.

My parents on their honeymoon in 1954. They look gorgeous. My mom was a stunner but never believed it. Sound familiar?

My beautiful mom holding me. This is one of the few pictures I have of Nazzareno Bertinelli, my grandfather, who is in the background.

Bubba and Beau together again on my dad’s bed the day after we found Bubba.

The picture Ed texted me after my mother passed. You can see how much he adored her.

Wolfie, Andraia, and I celebrating at a joint twenty-fifth birthday party for them.

Backstage in Ed’s dressing room on the road in 2015.

Ed’s surprise thirtieth birthday party that we were three hours late for.

This is later in our marriage, and those are the sober eyes of two people who love each other and will always love each other.