It may just be a coincidence that Iron Chef Cat Cora and her wife, Jennifer, were pregnant at the same time, but it was a coincidence that required a lot of hard work.

"With in vitro you have to work pretty hard to get pregnant," says Cora. "There are a lot of doctor's visits and hormones involved. We hoped it would work out this way because we thought it would be easier to have two together – basically twins – than to have a 1-year-old while trying to nurse an infant. I travel a lot so it was just easier for us and our planning."

Learn more about Cat Cora's pregnancy here.

Lots of Irons in the Fire

A life as busy as Cora's requires a lot of planning, and one thing they'd always planned on was four children. Jennifer has carried three of their boys, Zoran, 5, Caje, 2, and Thatcher, who was just born in April 2009. Their fourth son, the child Cora is pregnant with, is due in July 2009. Cora laughs when she recounts how it was waiting for a convenient break in her career to have a baby.

"I'm 42 now and began to realize a while ago that there would never be a perfect time to be pregnant," says Cora. "I knew if this was something I wanted I needed to do it now."

And it was something she wanted. Even as a very young girl Cora says she always loved children and always knew she wanted to give birth. If she had not done so, she thinks it would have been the one thing that would have been her biggest regret.

"This has been great for me; it's been wild and fun and an emotional roller coaster and all the things I thought it would be," says Cora. "Having said that, I feel like one time is enough. With my schedule, we have to be realistic about what we can handle."

Cora was born to cook. She comes from a long line of restaurateurs and was raised in a close-knit Greek community in Jackson, Miss., where life revolved around food and cooking. By age 15 she already had developed a business plan for her own restaurant. In keeping with the melting pot that is America, her fusion cuisine is inspired by her Greek heritage, her Southern upbringing and the food in literature she explored through such great American chef/authors as Julia Child and M.F.K. Fisher.

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Cora continued her culinary education and made her television debut in 1999 as co-host of Food Network's Melting Pot with Rocco Di Spirito. She went on to host My Country, My Kitchen: Greece and Date Plate as well as appearing in several other shows. Her big break came in 2005 when she was named the first female Iron Chef. Other accolades followed, like being named Teacher of the Year by Bon Appétit Magazine.

In addition to her work in TV, Cora launched the restaurant CCQ at Macys at South Coast Plaza in Southern California and has another restaurant in development at Walt Disney World's Boardwalk Resort. Called Kouzzina, Cora says it will offer food in the Greek tradition – delicious and affordable. It's set to open in the fall of 2009.

Like her mentors, Cora also writes. Her latest, Classics from the Hip, is a follow up to her popular book, Cooking from the Hip (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), and is set for publication in 2010. She also serves on a dizzying array of boards, advisory committees and charities, and has started her own charity, Chefs for Humanity (www.chefsforhumanity.org). Somehow, she still finds time to be a mentor herself, focusing on teaching others about cooking and nutrition.

With more on her plate in a day than many people have in a year, how does Cora do it all? She gives much of the credit for that to Jennifer, who was a nanny for seven years before they met and is a terrific mother. Cora also admits she's extremely organized and still makes lists that she uses to help her prioritize her time and her duties.

She and Jennifer are very hands-on parents, with a traditional family set up in that Jennifer is a full-time, stay-at-home mom while Cora is the sole breadwinner. Although, she does say that when she's home she's focused on home and pitches in a lot. And she couldn't imagine it any other way.

"I'm one of those type A personalities and for me to be home full-time and not work and do what I love to do would be very hard for me," says Cora.

Still, she says that she is "hyper aware" of the baby growing inside her and makes sure she takes some down time when she can. She hasn't exactly slowed down, but she does pace herself, making sure she relaxes and puts her feet up when she has a lull – something she never did when she wasn't pregnant. She says it's actually helped her find some balance in her hectic life.

"It's pretty crazy but Jennifer and I are very strong together and we definitely had a strategy for this all along," says Cora. "Right now I'm just enjoying the mystery of it all."