Movie critic Roger Ebert pens book about 'The Pot'

CHICAGO - Cancer might have robbed Roger Ebert of the ability to eat, but it won't stop him from dishing out cooking advice.

Four years after cancer surgery left the famed film critic unable to speak or eat, Ebert is

He took a witty and funny tone when writing it; he says he didn't want it to sound too specialized or difficult.

"The basic recipe is: throw everything in the pot and slam on the lid," said Ebert, who has battled cancer in his thyroid and salivary gland over the past eight years. He now uses a feeding tube for nourishment. His book, "The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker," will be released Sept. 21.

During his recovery, Ebert turned to social media such as Twitter and his blog, cultivating a tremendous following. And he's also reached out to mainstream media to tell his story. In February, for example, he talked to Esquire magazine about missing his former late movie review show co-host Gene Siskel, who died in 1999 from complications following surgery to remove a growth from his brain.

Ebert fell in love with the rice cooker after receiving one as a present for his 1992 wedding. The Chicago Sun-Times critic says he even took the rice cooker with him to the Sundance Film Festival, where he would cook with it during his busy movie-viewing schedule.

"We used to take the rice cooker almost everywhere we went," said his wife, Chaz.

Ebert urges his readers to improvise with the recipes and ingredients, saying there are no rules. He also says it is easy to adapt recipes not written for the rice cooker. Someone could go a week using the rice cooker three meals a day, he said.

And how do you learn to use a rice cooker?

"With experience, you develop a sixth sense," he said.

But writing a cookbook when you can't eat?

It isn't as sad as one might imagine that he is unable to eat or drink, he wrote in a blog post earlier this year. Rather, he misses the loss of dining with friends and family, rather than the loss of t