We’ll start with Liz Garbus, a dear friend whose restless mind churns out five great ideas an hour. Luckily for us, one of them was the initial spark for The New Brooklyn Cookbook (on a walk with Melissa in Prospect Park). Thank you, Liz.
And thanks to our agents, Larry Weissman and Sascha Alper, who showed us how to write a proposal … and then how to ask for a deadline extension.
Thanks to Cassie Jones, our fabulous editor at William Morrow, for believing in this project and for shaping our raw material into a fully realized book. And thanks to Jessica Deputato, Cassie’s talented assistant, for all of her effort and energy throughout the process.
Thanks to Michael Harlan Turkell, our gifted, tireless, and exceedingly well-connected photographer. Michael not only created every image in this book, he also introduced us to many of the chefs, restaurateurs, and producers. (Sixpoint Craft Ale’s Mason’s Black Wheat, a dark wheat beer, is named after Michael’s cat.)
Thanks to Christine Schomer for hours of inspired brainstorming, days of exhaustive research on the resource guide, and years of devoted friendship and support. Thanks to Melissa Clark for showing us the ropes. And thanks to Amy Wallace, whose sharp and thoughtful edits added flavor and spice to the restaurant entries.
Thanks to Melissa’s parents, Irma and Steve, in whose loving care we left our children for countless hours while we met with chefs, went to photo shoots, and toiled on the manuscript. And special thanks to Irma for her focused and meticulous recipe testing and editing.
Thanks to Brendan’s parents, Bambi and Dan, who also offered hours and hours of support in Brooklyn and North Carolina, entertaining their grandkids so we could squeeze in a few hours of work.
Thanks to Brendan’s brother, Kyle, and Melissa’s sister, Jen, for all their love and encouragement.
Thanks to Roan and Dory, the two most precious things in our lives.
And finally, a gigantic thank you to each and every chef, cook, restaurateur, bartender, and food producer whose vision and drive created the Brooklyn food scene as we know it—and without whom The New Brooklyn Cookbook would (obviously) not exist. As authors and as eaters, we thank you from the bottom of our stomachs.