FIRST, THANKS GO TO MY WIFE AND PARTNER, DONNA. Without her images, my books would be lesser by more than half, as we both work hard to convey information through the images rather than create highly stylized food photography. I like pretty food, and food should look enticing, but my first impulse is to show you what food can and should look like in your kitchen, and Donna conveys exactly this. I’ve cooked all the dishes in this book at home and Donna has photographed them here as well.
My chief recipe tester, over the course of many years and many books, is Marlene Newell, who runs the site cookskorner.com. Sticklers for detail and precision, she and her team of cooks ensure that all the recipes make sense and work. I can’t imagine doing a book without her.
Karen Wise is the copy editor of this book; she is true to her name and copyedits most everything I write.
Michael Sand, an executive editor at Little, Brown, is responsible for bringing this series into being, and for this and his sage counsel, I am grateful. As I am for the whole Little, Brown team that labors on my behalf: Deborah Jacobs, Cathy Gruhn, Meghan Deans, and their staffs as well.
I’m thrilled to be working with David and Joleen Hughes, of Level, who have determined the entire look and feel of this book, from colors to fonts to graphics to the way all these elements, including the photography, come together.
Emilia Juocys is my assistant, but I’m never comfortable with that term as it doesn’t encompass the extent of Emilia’s work or describe our relationship. She helps test and develop recipes, keeps me organized, serves as a kind of personal trainer in generating my work, and generally saves my ass on pretty much a weekly basis.
This book is dedicated to Peter Stevenson, a fellow writer and one of my oldest and dearest friends. Peter gave me a place to stay when my work required me to be in Manhattan, as it did frequently over the years, and I’d have been unable to afford to take on that work without his ongoing generosity. Long overdue thanks to you, Peter.