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It was only fitting that the queen of comfort food, Paula Deen, hosted a deeply decadent Sunday brunch on the last day of the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival. For this mid-morning, Southern-style feast, Deen teamed up with fellow chefs Elizabeth Karmel, Katie Lee, Chris Lilly and Claire Robinson for the buffet to end all buffets. At the Loews Hotel, 600 hungry fans dined on smoked salmon, ham sausage hash, shrimp and crab cake sliders, banana pecan pancakes, collard greens with ham, blackened catfish, pulled pork sandwiches and baked egg casserole with bacon and sausage. While everyone was eating, gospel singer Maryel Epps crooned classic jazz standards.

"I love brunch," Paula said of the event. "Everyone is still sober and I still have energy. I'm past the age of nightlife. Brunch is about good food and good friends. And, of course, you have to have grits. After all, this is the Kiss My Grits brunch."

For Deen, cooking with Katie Lee was a no-brainer. The two Southern women first met at the festival several years ago. "Katie Lee walked up to me and asked if I would be her fairy godmother," Paula recalled. "I was delighted to." Katie Lee's contribution to the brunch was her signature Nutella banana french toast casserole, along with a pomegranate elderflower champagne cocktail. "People liked it so much, and one man came up for thirds," she noted of her successful dish. Katie, herself, had two servings of the pulled pork sandwich.

Photo: Amazon.com.

'The Comfort Table: Recipes for Everyday Occasions'
Recipes by Katie Lee
Photographs by Miki Duisterhof
Simon & Schuster -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

"The Comfort Table: Recipes for Everyday Occasions" is Katie Lee's second cookbook, with an emphasis on holidays, seasonal celebrations and entertaining for crowds big and small. The book, broken down by occasion, includes a menu, complete with an appetizer, salad, main, side(s), drink, and dessert, along with a playlist and appropriate wine pairing.

Lee makes a point to demystify entertaining -- there's no need for a specific reason to celebrate or for un-needed stress. The "Party Tips" she shares in the book's introduction are simple tasks that should be included in every entertaining 101.

Southern comfort dishes like grits cakes, casseroles and biscuits are reinvented with flavorful ingredients like wild mushrooms, sage and Parmesan, while classics like fried chicken are presented as they should be -- untouched. Desserts like rustic apple pie, cheesecake, and chocolate-banana cream pie will have your sweet-tooth coming back for seconds (and maybe thirds). Don't have time to make the entire menu for dinner? Most side and main dishes can be made during the week to make this cookbook more versatile.

See what we tested and read our exclusive interview with Katie Lee after the jump to find out her favorite recipes and get the dish on the rumors of her own burger joint.