ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My sincere thanks to the following people:

To Christopher Hirsheimer for brilliant photography, astuteness, and panavision. To Melissa Hamilton for trout fishing and luminosity. To Dorothy Kalins for saving me from myself, and for wisdom beyond words.

To all the folks at Artisan, especially Ann Bramson, for their support, warmth, and incredible kindness: Sigi Nacson, Trent Duffy, Nancy Murray, and Judith Sutton. Thanks for your knowledgeable guidance. Thanks to Jan Derevjanik for a stunning design. Thanks to Barbara Tanis for a beautiful cover. To Katherine Cowles, agent and friend. For editorial support and help keeping the book alive, I thank Joan Simon, Fritz Streiff, Lynn Larsen, and Harriet Bell.

To Alice Waters and the entire staff at Chez Panisse, as well as to the convoluted and extended “family” of Panisse, I am forever indebted.

Thanks to chef Jean-Pierre Moullé for friendship and generosity and to Denise Lurton Moullé for rare insights into clafoutis, among other things.

Thanks to Bob Cannard, Charlene Nicholson Cannard, Bill Fujimoto, Paul Johnson, and the Chino family.

For major work on recipes and for steadfast friendship and help in the kitchen, thanks to Joe Evans and Nico Monday.

For additional recipe testing thanks to Oliver Schwaner-Albright, Diane Villani, Jeff Bretl, and Dottie Folley.

For sanctuary while writing, I thank Hugh Hamrick and David Sedaris, Milton Estes, Susan Rothenberg, and Bruce Nauman.

For being the best cooking and dining pals, I thank Tony Oltranti, Bob Carrau, Sue Murphy, Peggy Knickerbocker, Alta Tingle, Niloufer Ichaporia King, David King, Russell Moore, Allison Hopelain, Gilbert Pilgram, Richard Gilbert, Davia Nelson, Michael Wild, Jill Wild, Angelo Garro, Steven Barclay, Garth Bixler, Jérôme Waag, Kenny Parker, Caroline Gordon, Johanna Hill, Michael Sullivan, Sylvie Sullivan, Ernestine Kimbro, Lorin Leith, Otis Holt, Kate Coleman, Kevin West, Chris Galvin, Joe Guth, Katharine Kagel, Dan Welch, Deborah Madison, Patrick McFarland, Brian Knox, Jody Kent-Apple, Elizabeth Berry Sebastian, Andrew Sebastian, and Laura Calder.

For Italian expertise and inspiration, thanks to Stephen Singer, John Meis, Nancy Jenkins, Dario Cecchini, and Faith Willinger. For hospitality in Argentina, thanks to Fernando Trocca, Ignacio Mattos, and Juliana Lopez-May. In France, merci infiniment to Lulu Peyraud, Martine Labro, Claude Labro, Camille Labro, and Nathalie Waag. For her generosity and welcome in Mexico, thanks to Patricia Quintana. In Morocco, thanks to Mustapha Benzine and his family for extraordinary feasting and graciousness.

Thanks to my family: my sisters Barbara and Judith, my uncle Donald and aunt Ruth, my aunt Dottie (who has the recipe for the mythic Pineapple Blitz Torte), and in loving memory of my parents.

For everything else and everything in between, thanks to Randal Breski.