would not be what it is She is based on the West Coast and I am in Chicago, and for an entire year, from a distance, she worked tirelessly at retesting and rewriting each recipe that I sent to her in my broken English She has gone where not many have gone before, inside a male French chef’s brain, and extracted the essence of my thoughts It was an absolute delight working with her I appreciate her fine touch, honesty, perseverance, and humor at the same time Thank you also to Christina Malach and the entire team at Knopf, who believed in the book from the start and did a great job editing it, and to Janis Donnaud, my agent, who guided me through this entire process I am grateful to Paul Strabbing, the French Pastry School’s photographer for the last fifteen years Only he can capture the essence of my pastries Thanks to Johanna Lowe, who brought her European touch to the photo shoot and helped us with props and styling with such great attention to detail Saving the best for last, I am eternally grateful to my spiritual brother Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F., who created the French Pastry School with me in 1995 We were two young French chefs with no money but with a vision to create the best pastry school in North America, and after eighteen years I can say that we have never deviated from this goal This perseverance and commitment to quality is what makes the school what it is today Without Sébastien this book would not exist I want to thank my family in the United States, starting with Jo Kolanda and Bruce Iglauer, the best parents-in-law one could ... grateful to Paul Strabbing, the French Pastry School’s photographer for the last fifteen years Only he can capture the essence of my pastries Thanks to Johanna Lowe, who brought her European touch to the photo shoot... attention to detail Saving the best for last, I am eternally grateful to my spiritual brother Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F., who created the French Pastry School with me in 1995 We were two young French chefs with no money but... fine touch, honesty, perseverance, and humor at the same time Thank you also to Christina Malach and the entire team at Knopf, who believed in the book from the start and did a great job editing it, and to Janis