The most special thanks to Judith Weber, who pushed, encouraged and needled me to do this book for years, even though the subject wanted nothing to do with it. Her honest assessment, as well as cheerleading along the way, was my guiding light.
My entire life is one big collaboration. This book was no exception. Restauranting is a team sport. Writing Miss Ella was too. Thank you to dear Jerry Shriver, who interviewed, researched, organized, edited and wrote much of Miss Ella. Jerry got incredibly good at taking our long and winding interviews and notes and fashioning them into organized, coherent passages and chapters whilst channeling Mom in a scary spot-on way. And to Deb Shriver, who said, “When are you going to do the book on Ella? And you need to do a documentary, too.” And to Leslie Iwerks, who did the amazing documentary and allowed us to share in all her interviews. To Darla Fisackerly, who keeps me sane and typed the entire book from my handwritten notes and made good suggestions along the way. To Lally Brennan and Sam Fritz, who helped pull it all together. And to the amazing teams that never let the standards drop in our restaurants and allowed me the time to work on Miss Ella: my cousin Brad Brennan, Steve Woodruff, Tory McPhail, Don Strunk, Chris Barbato, Tom Robey, Dan Davis, Arlene Nesser, Lelia Lambert, Juan Carlos Gonzalez and Meg Bickford. And Reginelli’s leaders, Darryl Reginelli and Lisa Millet.
Thanks to our wonderful good friend Cokie Roberts, who feels like family, for a charming, warm foreword. And to the amazing list of dear friends who agreed to be interviewed for the book and helped us find old photographs and articles: Daniel Boulud, Gene Bourg, Alex Brennan Martin, Dickie Brennan, Dottie Brennan, Lally Brennan, Ralph Brennan, Frank Brigtsen, Leah Chase, Tom Fitzmorris, Joe Henican, Emeril Lagasse, Kate Lindquist, Maggie McCabe, Danny Meyer, Drew Nieporent, Emily Oppenheimer, Chris Owens, John Pope, Julia Reed, Melvin Rodrigue, Jack Robinson, Jerry Siegel, Ron Thompson, Poppy Tooker, Jeremiah Tower, Hal Williamson, Donn Young, and Tim and Nina Zagat.
And to Gibbs Smith and delightful editors Madge Baird and Kerry McShane and designer Renee Bond.
—Ti Adelaide Martin