Valerie Bertinelli grew up on television as Barbara Cooper in One Day at a Time.
For another generation, she is the familiar face beside a kitchen counter, guiding recipes and encouraging young bakers. So what happened to Valerie Bertinelli when her Food Network work ended?
She kept working, but changed where audiences could find her. Her 2026 projects include the memoir Getting Naked, the digital community Valerie’s Place, and the Lifetime film Love, Again. She also appears on The Drew Barrymore Show.
The real turning point was losing a regular television home while building ways to speak to viewers more directly.
Her audience followed her beyond sitcoms
Bertinelli’s television career gave her a relationship with viewers long before she became a cooking host. Barbara Cooper made her recognizable, and later acting credits included Touched by an Angel.
That history matters because her cooking work did not introduce a stranger. Audiences already knew her face and voice. Sharing food offered another setting for the familiarity she had built through scripted television.
Her move into books also preceded the latest changes. Enough Already arrived in 2022, before Getting Naked expanded her writing about aging and self-acceptance. Kirkus Reviews places the two books in that sequence.
Original photograph, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Two Food Network departures changed her routine
Valerie’s Home Cooking ended after 14 seasons. Then, in January 2024, Bertinelli announced she would not return to Kids Baking Championship, which she had hosted with Duff Goldman.
TVLine’s report documented her disappointment. Bertinelli said she understood the business considerations but felt hurt by the decision and how she learned about it.
She also spoke warmly about the crew and young contestants. The job had been a source of connection during a difficult period in her life.
Those departures explain why viewers stopped seeing her in familiar Food Network settings. They do not establish that she wanted to stop cooking on camera or leave entertainment.
For another actress navigating the end of a long-running television job, Allison Janney’s work after Mom offers a related story about what follows a series ending.
Valerie’s Place brought cooking back on her terms
In 2026, Bertinelli launched Valerie’s Place, a subscription platform combining cooking content and community activities.
She told NewBeauty in March that she missed making cooking content. Getting traditional television projects made was difficult, and social-media feeds did not reliably reach people who wanted to watch her.
Her own platform offered a central destination. Its plans included cooking shows, book discussions, a podcast and live interaction.
“It is so much easier with my own platform,” she said.
Bertinelli described working at home with a smaller team and longtime culinary producer Sophie Clark. The arrangement also allowed actual conversations with viewers.
The practical change was significant: people interested in her recipes could choose a dedicated space instead of hoping a video appeared in their feeds.
Getting Naked revisits how she sees herself
Published March 10, 2026, Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect addresses aging, body image and self-acceptance.
Kirkus described the book as closer to personal reflection and self-help than a conventional chronological autobiography. Bertinelli revisits experiences that shaped how she treated herself, including her earlier involvement in diet culture.
The book follows a public life in which appearance often became part of the conversation. Her newer writing asks readers to consider what happens when approval from others stops being the main measure.
In her 2026 AARP interview, she discussed grief, reinvention and her work as a lifestyle expert on Drew Barrymore’s show. Those conversations place her current public role somewhere between entertainer, author and familiar companion.
Original photograph, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Love, Again returned her to a dramatic role
Her 2026 work also includes Love, Again, alongside Henry Czerny and Eric McCormack.
Lifetime’s official synopsis describes a marriage changed by a husband’s early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis. His wife finds comfort in an unexpected friendship.
It is a fictional story about caregiving, grief and connection. The character’s circumstances should not be confused with Bertinelli’s own medical history.
For viewers who mostly knew her recent hosting work, the film offered another chance to watch her acting. It also made the answer to retirement speculation concrete: she was still taking screen roles.
Her current work spans several kinds of storytelling
As of November 2026, Bertinelli’s recent activities extend across a book, a film, daytime television and her digital community.
The thread connecting them is the relationship she has built with audiences over decades. Cooking lets her share a practical skill. Memoir lets her describe experiences in her own words. Acting lets her tell someone else’s story.
Losing two familiar television jobs changed her schedule and her route to viewers. It did not end that relationship. The kitchen remains part of her working life, even when the network logo changes.