Pauley Perrette of NCIS pays tribute to her mother in her new cookbook Donna Bell’s Bake Shop.

Donna Bell’s Bake Shop Cookbook

Perrette has starred as Abby Sciuto on NCIS since 2003, and, while fans know her as the smart scientist who helps solve crimes, the actress is also an accomplished business owner. After losing her mother to breast cancer in 2002, Perrette opened a bakery in New York City in honor of her mother, called Donna’s Bake Shop.

Perrette’s mother was from Alabama, and the actress revealed that her mother loved Southern cooking. “My mom’s from Alabama – very Alabama. So, about four years ago… we made Donna Bell’s Bake Shop, which is all southern foods,” Perrette said in an interview with CBS.

“My mom, she was such a wonderful lady. I lost her way too early…No matter how old you are, when you lose your mom, you feel like an orphan,” Perrette added.

Though the cookbook, written with her two best friends Darren Greenblatt and Donna Bell’s Bake Shop chef Matthew Sandusky, contains a few of her mother’s own recipes, the book also works as a biography. Perrette included a few anecdotes about her mother and about her own acting career in the book, and called it a sort of biography-cookbook hybrid.

Perrette’s Donna Bell Bake Shop cookbook is currently available for purchase in stores now.