At the outset of this book, I got to sit down with food scientist Naomi Sundalius, who talked extensively about how her years of experimenting in the kitchen helped lead her to a career in food science. She explained a lot about this fascinating field, and also let me borrow a few of her ideas for this book: baking cookies using different kinds of fats, flavored-oil infusion, the concept of peanut butter in stick form for ease of baking, and the theory of using a what-if when you’re working with food and science. Naomi, your help was invaluable in shaping this story. Thank you!
I’m grateful to have a helpful team of young readers who work with me on this series: Milla, Ruby, and Henry Downing, Samantha Thiegs, Frankie McConville, Stella Wedren, and Bianca Breiland. Thanks for talking all things Disney Princess with me and giving me your honest feedback on works in progress. Thanks also to Caroline Claeson, who introduced me to the concept of advisory groups.
Cheers to my mom, Barb Soderberg, and my husband, Greg, for being incredible plotting partners—and helping with all my cooking questions!
Huge thanks to the incredible editorial, design, and brand teams at both Random House and Disney, for working to make this the best book possible: Rachel Poloski, Lauren Burniac, Michelle Nagler, Samantha McFerrin, Jean-Paul Orpinas, Megan McLaughlin, and Holly Rice. And of course, my agent, Michael Bourret, has been an amazing partner on this and every book.
Finally, thanks to Anoosha Syed for your glorious art in this series—you’ve really helped bring these characters to life!