Cat Cora dishes on life in memoir, "Cooking as Fast as I Can"

World-renowned chef Cat Cora is known for her fusion of Greek and Southern recipes. She is also the author of three cookbooks and has appeared on seven Food Network shows.

Cora joined "CBS This Morning" to introduce her new memoir, "Cooking as Fast as I Can: A Chef's Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness," which details the "adventures and successes and missteps" she has made along her journey to becoming a celebrity chef.

When she was approached to write the book, Cora said she had to process whether she was ready to tell all of her stories.

"I'm a positive person...but my life hasn't been easy at times," she said, alluding to some of the lowest points in her life, including overcoming sexual abuse and depression, and being arrested for drunk driving.

Rather than "sugar-coat" her stories, Cora said she decided to be raw and candid about her experiences to show people that if "little Cathy Cora from Mississippi against all odds can make it," they can too.

Cora went into more depth about her toughest battle in her life, being sexually abused by a family friend when she was just six years old.

"When that happens to you at such a young age, you really do feel like you're alone in the world," she said.

Cora said she channeled her childhood trauma as a drive for success.

"I think that for me it was about, 'I will not let the same and the guilt stop me,'" Cora said.

Calling herself a "dreamer," she described the time she met American chef and television personality, Julia Child, who told her that it was a "man's world."

When she told Child she wanted to do what she does, Child told her that she had to be stubborn and couldn't "take no as an answer."

Cora said she took the advice, entering the "man's world" when she joined Food Network's hit show, "Iron Chef," and went on to become the first female "Iron Chef."

"I was representing all women in the industry to say we can cook as fast and hard as men," Cora said. "That journey of breaking down barriers which Julia did so beautifully for so many of us."