Thank you…
To Janis Donnaud, the most demanding, supportive, honest, and hardest working agent I could ask for. I’m so glad she’s on my side.
To Nancy Silverton, a great (and I do mean great) teacher and friend who I have had the privilege of learning from and cooking with for almost 15 years. Nancy called me almost daily as I was writing this book to share grain bowl inspiration she’d seen in other restaurants, magazines, or that just came out of the wellspring that is her imagination. And this from someone who doesn’t even eat grains.
To Beatriz da Costa for the stunning photos. Beatriz is a true artist, and it was a real pleasure to see her process—and her photos.
To Susan Spungen, brilliant genius and my friend of over two decades, who does some kind of magic to make food look delicious, effortless, and, best yet, un-styled on the page. Susan’s work defined food styling for this generation and the fact that she agreed to style my book was a great honor and gift.
To Susan and Bea’s crew, including Laura Kinsey and Pia Moore, who, for two straight weeks, worked above and beyond in their pursuit of beauty and perfection.
To prop-master Helen Crowther, who was very generous and big hearted with her stunning props.
To the team at Grand Central Life & Style, most especially Brittany McInerney for her tireless efforts at the endless onion of editing, and Karen Murgolo for believing in my book to begin with.
To Amy Sly for taking direction from all angles and turning it into a gorgeous and lively book.
To my sister Christy for her occasional trips to the grocery store, for letting me raid her fridge even when she didn’t know I was doing it, and for eating so many grains even when she may not have wanted to.
To the entire Chino clan for their continuous support and inspiring vegetables.
To Adriene Hughes, for the pretty author photo and for the photography lessons she gave Emily and me as we were working on the book.
And most of all, thanks to Emily Corliss, who worked with such focus, attention to detail, and dedication in helping me to make every recipe in these pages as delicious and home-cook friendly as they could be. Emily has such a smart sensibility when it comes to food; she never suggests anything I would find silly or unnecessary or just plain weird. Instead, it was all fun, with regular flashes of total brilliance (see Lamb Meatballs). She worked on this book as if it were her own, which is the dream, isn’t it?