There are many reasons for wishing that this revision hadn’t taken as long as it did, and one of the biggest is the fact that I can’t show Alan the new chapter on fish I’ll always be grateful to Alan and to Jane for their encouragement and advice, and for the years of friendship which began with that lunch This book and my life would have been much poorer without them I would also have liked to give this book to Nicholas Kurti — bracing myself for the discussion to come! Nicholas wrote a heartwarmingly positive review of the first edition in Nature, then followed it up with a Sunday-afternoon visit and an extended interrogation based on the pages of questions that he had accumulated as he wrote the review Nicholas’s energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm for good food and the telling “little experiment” were infectious, and animated the early Erice workshops They and he are much missed Coming closer to home and the present, I thank my family for the affection and patient optimism that have kept me going day after day: son John and daughter Florence, who have lived with this book and experimental dinners for more than half their years, and enlivened both with their gusto and strong opinions; my father, Chuck McGee, and mother, Louise Hammersmith; brother Michael and sisters Ann and Joan; and Chuck Hammersmith, Werner Kurz, Richard Thomas, and Florence Jean and Harold Long Throughout these last few trying years, my wife Sharon Long has been constantly caring and supportive I’m deeply grateful to her for that gift Milly Marmur, my onetime publisher, longtime agent, and now great friend, has been a source of propulsive energy over the course of a marathon whose length neither of us foresaw I’ve been lucky to enjoy her warmth, patience, good sense, and her skill at ... dinners for more than half their years, and enlivened both with their gusto and strong opinions; my father, Chuck McGee, and mother, Louise Hammersmith; brother Michael and sisters Ann and Joan; and Chuck Hammersmith, Werner Kurz, Richard...Coming closer to home and the present, I thank my family for the affection and patient optimism that have kept me going day after day: son John and daughter Florence, who have lived with this book and experimental... Hammersmith, Werner Kurz, Richard Thomas, and Florence Jean and Harold Long Throughout these last few trying years, my wife Sharon Long has been constantly caring and supportive I’m deeply grateful to her for