Award-winning authors of BECOMING A CHEF, CULINARY ARTISTRY, DINING OUT, CHEF'S NIGHT OUT and the 2004 IACP Cookbook Award Finalist THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF

(Circulation: Our e-Newsletter has grown to 11,311 subscribers — among the most passionate food and wine lovers across the United States and around the world — since it began monthly publication in February 2004. For a FREE subscription for your favorite food enthusiast, simply email CookbookRave@aol.com, or enter an automatic subscription at www.becomingachef.com. To contact Andrew and/or Karen, please email us at Dornenburg@aol.com.)

I. NOVEMBER GREETINGS FROM ANDREW & KAREN

II. WHERE WE'VE BEEN: From the Plains of SPAIN to the Hills of KENTUCKY

III. "THE JOSH REPORT": How One Young American Landed a Job Cooking in Spain

IV. STUFF WE LOVE: Holiday News From Friends' Corners of the World

V. IN THE NEWS: The Latest Ink and Air Coverage of Our Books

VI. OUR READERS WRITE: From Across the U.S. and Around the World

Dear Friends & Colleagues:

Our research and speaking engagements this past month took us from the cornfields of Indiana and Illinois to the olive groves of Spain, crossing both the Atlantic Ocean and the Ohio River on our way over the blue hills of Kentucky, before returning home to New York City.

Kicking things off, in mid-October we flew to Chicago where Karen attended a meeting of The Council of 100, Northwestern's top 100 alumnae who coach undergraduate women on their career plans. Afterward, we drove to West Lafayette, Indiana, where our friend Susan Bulkeley Butler was honored with Purdue University's Krannert Business Leadership Award (its highest honor) and written up in The New York Times Business section for the new Center of Leadership she's spearheading at the Krannert School of Management.

Back home in New York City, we stopped by Tony Bourdain's book party at his newly-expanded Les Halles to toast him and his new Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. As waiters passed carrying platters of the restaurant's addictive French fries, Tony told us that he was just back from the Midwest as well, and also heading off to Europe (on his book tour) shortly.

Repacking our bags, we flew to Madrid to kick off a 10-day tour of some of Spain's best restaurants, markets, and artisan producers of food and wine. As guests of ICEX, we joined a handful of fellow food writers for an unforgettable introduction to some of the best of the best of Spanish gastronomy. (In Section III, aspiring chef Josh Silverman fills us in on how he landed a job in one of Spain's top kitchens, and his experiences behind the kitchen door.)

We returned to New York in time to fly to Louisville to keynote the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs' annual conference, which was attended by 300 women (and about a half-dozen men) from across the United States. (While we unfortunately didn't make it back to New York in time to attend Serena Bass's book party celebrating her beautiful new book Serena: Food and Stories, we'd still like to congratulate her on this impressive accomplishment!)

The next night we served as "celebrity judges" at the Third Annual Tribeca Cook-Off, which pit New York City firefighters against chefs of leading Tribeca restaurants such as Acapella, Dylan Prime, Fresh, The Harrison, and Layla. We didn't think it would be a fair fight, but when the winning dishes were announced, three firefighters took home top honors. (As a former firefighter himself, Andrew loves the thought of firefighters spending time in front of the flame of the stove instead of the alternative.) And we had fun meeting fellow judges who included author Heide Banks, NY State Restaurant Association's Chuck Hunt, actor Tony Lip (aka Carmine of "The Sopranos"), and reigning "Miss Manhattan" and Radio City Rockette Kandice Pelletier.

Speaking of Tribeca, we were also happy to join David and Karen Waltuck and hundreds of their "grooviest" (in keeping with the evening's theme) friends and colleagues at Chanterelle's 25th anniversary party the other night. Cheers to the restaurant's next 25 years!

* TONIGHT IN WASHINGTON, DC: We're looking forward to seeing those of you in the greater Washington, DC, area at the National Press Club Book Fair tonight, Wednesday, November 17th, from 6:00 - 8:30 pm. THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF and BECOMING A CHEF are two of only 70 books selected to be featured at this prestigious annual event, which draws more than 1,000 guests. Get a jump on your holiday shopping, or just stop by to say hello and get a taste of Marcel Desaulniers' infamous cookie recipe from BECOMING A CHEF! Other authors who will be featured range from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson to chef Michael Lomonaco (author of Nightly Specials) to Malachy McCourt. There's more information on the Book Fair available at npc.press.org. For more on where else we're headed, visit our Web site at www.becomingachef.com/news_and_events.php.

Finally, we'd like to express our gratitude for all your kind thoughts and good wishes regarding our family and friends that we wrote of in last month's e-Newsletter. We'll be giving thanks for your friendship next Thursday, and hope this Thanksgiving finds you surrounded by much good food and fellowship.

Delicious wishes,
Andrew & Karen

* POSTCARDS FROM SPAIN (Part I of II)

"Spain is the new France."
—The New York Times Magazine (August 10, 2003)

The New York Times Magazine's August 2003 cover story "The Nueva Nouvelle Cuisine," which pictures El Bulli chef Ferran Adria, argued that Spain is the new epicenter of culinary innovation.

Of course, we'd already written of this transformation in our March 2001 book CHEF'S NIGHT OUT (pp. 18-21), which features one of the first interviews published in America of Ferran Adria, whom we'd interviewed with the help of celebrated chef Jose Andres of Washington, DC, who formerly worked with Adria. (We also recounted the impressions of top American chefs from Todd English to Nancy Silverton to Jacques Torres after dining at El Bulli and how their exposure to Adria's cutting-edge technique had influenced them — and also broke the news that Adria's infamous foams were not made with CO2, as commonly thought, but rather with N2O, better known as laughing gas.)

Being on the cutting edge of food trends is nothing new to us: Because we interview insiders at the leading edge of the culinary profession, we've often been privy to new trends literally years before they hit the mainstream media. But in this case, it took us a few years from the time our interest in the new wave of Spanish gastronomy was piqued to the time we finally had an opportunity to experience it firsthand.

We returned from our first visit to Spain two weeks ago with more delicious memories than we ever could have imagined, having tasted everything from the simple (French fries cooked in olive oil) to the surreal (pungent green olive foam served with potato chips). There's too much to share in this month's e-Newsletter, so — tapas-style — we've decided to provide just a few tastes of some of the highlights this month, and to share a few more next month:

- BODEGAS FARINA (Toro)

Are Merce Temprano and Antonia Rollou the best cooks in Spain?

These two women were responsible for the single best dish we tasted during our entire trip.

After eating at some of the best restaurants in the cities we visited, it's hard to believe that a simple dish of pork ribs braised with potatoes, tomato and paprika was the one that literally made a table of food professionals' jaws drop. But indeed it was.

These very modest women peeked out of the kitchen a few times as if to catch a glimpse of our faces at the table to see how we were enjoying the food. Undeterred by her lack of Spanish, Karen finally got up from the table mid-lunch to find a way to communicate our collective swooning admiration.

Bodegas Farina is one fortunate winery indeed — not merely for the talent that produces such lovely wines, but for the talent in its private kitchen that creates such extraordinarily delicious dishes to show them off! The pork ribs were complemented perfectly by Farina's Gran Colegiata crianza, which is made with 100% Tinta de Toro grapes.

- BOTIN (Madrid)

The Guinness Book of World Records lists Botin as the oldest restaurant in the world. Opened in 1725, Botin has had plenty of time to perfect its recipe for croquetas, which were the best we tasted in Spain — not to mention perfectly moist yet crisp-skinned suckling pig, roasted in the restaurant's ancient oven. Reserve a table downstairs for maximum ambiance.

- BAR CENTRAL and PETRUS at LA BOQUERIA (Barcelona)

"This is not The Ritz," deadpanned Anna, the woman with the charming Spanish accent who served us at the counter of Bar Central, one of La Boqueria's busiest tapas bars, as she handed us a plateful of forks and knives to distribute amongst our group. "The food is better," she added.

Anna might be right. We had some of the best tapas — from anchovies to tortilla — we enjoyed anywhere in Spain at this crazily busy tapas bar at the rear of Barcelona's crazily busy enclosed market. The crowning highlight? Perfect cepes our host spontaneously bought at Petrus, the renowned mushroom stand next to the bar, which he then gave to Bar Central's owner, who threw them on a flat-top griddle and served them to us moments later with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. They were the best mushrooms we've ever tasted, with a silky texture not unlike that of seared foie gras. We were not surprised to learn that Petrus also supplies mushrooms to El Bulli and other top restaurants.

- CASA PONS (Lleida)

A couple of hours outside Barcelona, we were treated to the best olive oil we've ever tasted in our lives at Casa Pons. Perhaps it was no wonder: Arriving on the second day of the season, we were able to taste oil made from olives that had been picked in the morning and pressed just hours later, so it had the freshest, fruitiest flavor imaginable.

Casa Pons also educated us on the subtleties of tasting and evaluating olive oil:

•  Because color is considered irrelevant to quality, olive oil is tasted from opaque blue cups so your eyes don't unduly influence your judgment.

•  It's important to warm the cup of olive oil with the heat of your hands for a few moments before tasting.

•  Slices of apple are recommended to cleanse the palate between oils.

We'll share more next month in Part II of II — including a few more terrific restaurants, the best Iberian ham we've ever tasted, and news of cutting-edge Spanish chocolates. In the meantime, we'll be posting more on our Blog here.

* POSTCARDS FROM LOUISVILLE

We were delighted to attend the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs' annual conference in Louisville Nov. 6-8, where the highlights ranged from a cooking demo and food and wine pairing seminar run by chef Rick Bayless and his talented sommelier Jill Gubesch, to a tasting of various distilled spirits with their producers' top spokeswomen, to a provocative sampling of food and whisky pairings.

On Monday morning, we delivered our keynote speech entitled "ENERGIZE! Yourself, Your Life and Your Career in the Restaurant Business." Our presentation drew both on the energy management framework put forth by our friend Tony Schwartz (of theenergyproject.com) as well as on our own research on leading chefs' and restaurateurs' best practices. In our talk, we pointed out that the extraordinary demands of the hospitality industry (which by definition involve taking care of others) can only be met if chefs, restaurateurs and other industry professionals take care of themselves first — by managing their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy.

It was as if a lightbulb went off for several of those in attendance. Participants responded with laughter over their obvious lack of attention to self-care that became apparent through the real-time self-assessment tool we walked them through, which had them rate themselves on such statements as "I eat a nutritious breakfast every morning" and "I am able to leave work behind at the end of the day."

We signed dozens of copies of our books for attendees, having recommended THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF to those wanting to ground their physical energy, BECOMING A CHEF for emotional energy, and CULINARY ARTISTRY for mental energy. (All our books aim to feed spiritual energy.)

One culinary student shyly approached us afterward to thank us, attesting that our speech had made her cry. "I'd been feeling guilty about being at this conference," she admitted, "but your speech made me realize that I never put myself first." We're hoping to encourage even more restaurant professionals to turn this around.

We'd love to hear from those of you who attended the WCR conference about what new rituals and changes you are incorporating your lives to increase your energy levels. We'd like to be able to share your stories with others. Please drop us a line at Dornenburg@aol.com.

Our congratulations to WCR President Bonnie Moore of The Inn at Little Washington and her team for pulling off such an inspirational conference, and best of luck to incoming WCR President Helene Kennan of The Getty Center in Los Angeles on continuing this tradition!

* POSTCARDS FROM CHICAGO

What makes for a great evening, one that you'll remember for years? Our formula last month over dinner at Tru in Chicago was stimulating new friends, great food, equally great wines — and a friend who is doing the pouring! We enjoyed dinner with Karen's fellow Northwestern alum Loraine Despres (author of The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LaBlanc) and her TV writer-producer husband Carleton Eastlake. Throughout our discussion of food, politics and the current state of television (through which they turned us on to "The Daily Show"), the talents of sommelier Scott Tyree, chef Rick Tramonto and pastry chef Gale Gand at every course managed to stop conversation long enough for one of us to urge the others, "You've got to try this!"

Scott chose different wines for each dish but with the entrees gave us a demonstration of the versatility of Puligny-Montrachet by pairing it both with Karen's Butter Poached Maine Lobster with Ricotta Gnocchi and Andrew's Assiette of Pork with Pork Loin, Pork Belly and Pork Rillettes with Pork Jus. The wine was poetry next to the lobster and beurre blanc, bringing the lightness and brightness of spring to this autumn night. With the pork, it showed its earthy notes while playing off the top notes of the aromatic spices that accented the three different preparations.

From the tickle of the first amuse-bouche to the final adrenaline rush of seeing the cart of petits fours sidle up to the table, Tru showed us why it was recognized as the city's #1 restaurant of 2004 by Chicago magazine's chief dining critic Dennis Ray Wheaton that very week.

A generation ago, serious aspiring chefs would make pilgrimages to cook in France, where the world's best restaurants were then located. If "Spain is the new France," what would it be like for a young American chef to cook in Spain today?

We met aspiring chef Josh Silverman at the Cascadia Culinary Arts Conference on Washington's Whidbey Island when we keynoted the conference in May 2004. Doubtless one of the youngest attendees, Josh impressed us by the sheer fact that he was serious enough about food to attend such a gathering.

But what made him win our hearts was a thoughtful question about the philosophy underlying ingredient pairing he asked of a panel of leading Pacific Northwest chefs that prompted only stumped headshakes and nervous laughs in response. We sought him out afterward to compliment him on the out-of-the-box way he thought about food and his bravery in asking his question, and cited examples from our research of top chefs whose work addressed the question he'd posed to the panel.

Thereafter, we learned of Josh's planned trip to Spain, and his desire to work in a restaurant kitchen in Valencia. Thanks to chef Jose Andres (of Café Atlantico, Jaleo, et al in Washington, DC), we were able to put Josh in touch with one of Valencia's (and Spain's) most celebrated chefs: Raul Alexandre of Ca'Sento. Here are highlights from Josh's reports to us:

* Installment #1: "Hola Karen & Andrew, Last week we had dinner at Ca'Sento, and what a meal it was!  Seven courses of some of the freshest and most well-prepared seafood my girlfriend and I have ever experienced.  Everything was beautifully presented and the service was perfecto.  It's such a small place (only nine tables) that they are really able to make sure every detail of every plate is perfect.  Same goes for the service: four waitstaff for nine tables!  A very nice wine list and superb dessert topped it all off (as well as a taste of the house-made, grappa-type, digestif!).  In short, dinner at Ca'Sento was one of the best meals I've ever had. 

So I gave my resume to Chef Alexandre and he already knew who I was from my emails.  He told me to come back on Wednesday with my passport and a chef's coat.  I guess I got the job!  I'm really excited (and nervous) and don't really know what to expect.  My Spanish is slowly improving but Raul speaks no English and I'm not sure if anyone else in the kitchen does either.  As of now, I have no idea how much I'll be working, what (or if) I'll get paid, or what I'll actually be doing (if anything) in the kitchen.  So, lots of questions going through my head.  I guess I'll show up on Wednesday and find out!  In any case, I think it will be a really good experience and I'm up for the challenge. 

Once again, I want to thank you so much for all your help in getting the job at Ca'Sento and all your words of advice.  It is very much appreciated!  Gracias, and hope to hear from you soon, Josh"

* Installment #2: "Karen and Andrew, Spain definitely holds its weight in culinary gold and the Spanish people are just as serious about their cuisine as they are about their soccer. 

Since I last wrote, I've not only been working at one restaurant, but two!  I've been working days at a place called Oscargastrovi and nights at Ca'Sento.  Oscar's specializes in high-end tapas, paellas, seafood, and traditional Spanish meat dishes, and is more classically-based than Ca'Sento.  The chef, Oscar Torrijo, has been in the business for 30+ years and knows a ton about Spanish cuisine.  He is very eager to share this knowledge with me and I try to understand as much as I can around the language barrier.  Oscar's is a little more casual with a lot less pressure than Ca'Sento, which is good because Oscar has more time to teach me things. 

Ca'Sento is a whole different ballgame. I'm learning how intense it is to perform night after night at a Michelin-starred level. (Ca'Sento has 1.5 stars.)  The food is beautiful and chef Raul Alexandre is of the new school of Spanish chefs along with Jose Andres and Ferran Adriá.  I am seeing some of the most interesting seafood presentations and different ingredients used here. 

I thought I would be able to learn more from just watching, and that the language barrier wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I underestimated the necessity of being able to ask questions about everything that's going on.  For instance, a lot of times there will be an ingredient that I don't recognize and I know how to ask what it is, but I don't always understand the answer and sometimes it's such a unique ingredient that it is not in my Spanish dictionary.  So it's difficult and a lot of the time I find myself guessing at what something is or how something is made. But just being in the kitchen is a great experience and I think it's the opportunity of a lifetime.

I will continue working until the end of November when we will leave Valencia and start the second leg of our trip [throughout Europe]...I'm sad to be leaving Valencia, as it has started to feel like home, but excited at the prospect of new adventures and, of course, all the yummy food to come! I'll write more later on.  Hasta Luego for now! Josh"

* BUD ROYER: Our decade-long tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving sadly ended with our friends Kelley and Scott Olson's move from Connecticut to the Midwest. While the location of our more recent Thanksgiving dinners has changed from year to year, something that's become a new tradition is ending dinner with a fabulous pie from Royers Round Top Cafe in Round Top, Texas. Bud "The Pieman" Royer's pecan pie is the best we've ever tasted! And, best of all, he ships his pies nationwide — visit www.royersroundtopcafe.com/Order.htm or call toll-free: 1-877-866-PIES.

* ELIZABETH and MICHAEL TERRY: Elizabeth Terry and her husband Michael have left Savannah (and their celebrated restaurant Elizabeth on 37th) and relocated to Jepson Vineyards in northern California. Elizabeth is truly an inspiration: After putting her restaurant on the map, writing a book, contributing to countless causes, and raising a family, she is now enjoying having the time to pursue sculpting! To find out more about the winery, and Elizabeth and Michael, visit www.jepsonwine.com.

* VALERIE VIGODA and BRENDAN MILBURN of GROOVELILY: We recently celebrated a wonderful milestone with our friends Valerie Vigoda and Brendan Milburn (aka GrooveLily): Their first record deal for their show "Striking 12," a fun, modern, hip retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's holiday story of The Little Match Girl set to pop-rock music, which will be released by PS Classics in December. We took our nieces Gail and Kristen to see the show with us in Philadelphia a couple of Decembers ago, and they both loved it as much as we did! GrooveLily will perform its third season of "Striking 12" during the month of December at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. We hope everyone in the San Francisco Bay Area next month will have the great pleasure of checking it out! "'Striking 12' strikes gold...Ideal holiday entertainment." —The Los Angeles Times

* And finally, our congratulations to our old friend SCOTT HANCOCK and the entire crew of Apsara for completing this week their 18-month sea voyage, covering 18,000 miles (from Finland to New Zealand) and crossing the world's two largest oceans. Details at www.svApsara.com.

Books To Check Out This Holiday Season:

Last month we shared our highest praise for The Inn at Little Washington chef-owner Patrick O'Connell's gorgeous new cookbook Refined American Cuisine. This month, we add a few more recommendations of new thoughts on food –- or food for thought — for kids of all ages:

* RICK AND LANIE'S EXCELLENT KITCHEN ADVENTURES: Recipes and Stories
by Rick Bayless & Lanie Bayless with Deann Groen Bayless

Take a trip around the world with celebrated chef Rick Bayless and his teenage daughter Lanie, as they cook their way through Mexico, Oklahoma (of which Rick's a native), France, Morocco and Thailand –- with side trips along the way to Peru, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Japan and Hong Kong. Each dish features introductory commentary from both Rick and Lanie, including "Rick's Favorite Chocolate Birthday Cake," of which Rick muses, "Since my grandma made it for us all the time, it has to be perfect, right?" while Lanie states, "I don't know about you, but chocolate cake is ALWAYS worth eating. It's CHOCOLATE!"

* THE ROCKET REVIEW REVOLUTION: The Ultimate Guide to the New SAT
by Adam Robinson

With our nieces nearing the age when they'll be starting to think about college, we thank our lucky stars that we'll never have to sit for another standardized test. However, if we did, we'd at least be well-served by pioneering test strategist Adam Robinson's truly groundbreaking insider's guide to the new SAT –- as will any future college-bound teen of your acquaintance! And the best fuel for test-preparation practice just might be sampling a recipe out of....

* THE WEEKEND BAKER: Irresistible Recipes, Simple Techniques, and Stress-Free Strategies for Busy People
by Abigail Johnson Dodge

We met Abby Dodge at Carnegie Hall studios, where all of us were being interviewed by Evan Kleiman for her KCRW Radio show "Good Food," which is based in Los Angeles. Abby told us about her forthcoming book The Weekend Baker and we couldn't wait to see a copy. It was worth the wait: The book completely delivers on its title, and we've already become huge fans of Abby's Soft Chocolate-Almond Oatmeal Cookies (made with toasted slivered almonds).

* THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF: Cooking with the Best of Flavors and Techniques from Around the World
by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page

To help our readers with their holiday gift-giving, we're making a select number of copies of our 2004 IACP Cookbook Award Finalist THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF available as part of two different gifts:

1) You can have a personally signed copy of THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF sent via Priority Mail to the recipient of your choice with a gift card from you for $30.

2) You can give a gift certificate for a one-hour culinary teleclass with Andrew and Karen, which also includes a signed copy of THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF, to the recipient of your choice with a gift card from you for $55. Recipients will receive a schedule of our 2005 teleseminars and can choose the one that fits their interest and availability. Subjects to be covered will range from global cooking to flavor compatibility to food writing.

To order, simply send a check payable to "Andrew Dornenburg" to Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, 527 Third Ave. Suite 130, New York, NY 10016. Be sure to include both your own information, and, if a gift, the recipient's name and address. Orders placed before December 10th are expected to reach recipients before December 24th.

— Dorothea Wingo of the Lexington Herald-Leader mentioned our keynoting the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs annual conference in Louisville in the November 5th issue.

— In an interview in the November 2004 issue of Rhode Island Monthly, chef Holly Dion cited CULINARY ARTISTRY as her favorite culinary book: "Dion honed her craft working with Steven Marsella at the Gatehouse for eight years and at Cheeky Monkey in Newport . She also was head chef at Eclectic Grille....Favorite cookbook? CULINARY ARTISTRY by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page; not so much a cookbook but a reference guide filled with artistic knowledge."

— Margaret Littman's Body & More article on "The Dearth of Taste" mentions our book CULINARY ARTISTRY: "This book by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg gives everyday people a guide to what the chefs know by instinct: Got a melon or strawberry that doesn't have the intensity you had hoped? A little kirsch liquor will make it sweeter. Most people now know that basil complements tomatoes, but most don't think of orange and sweet potatoes or honey and grapefruit, although those are the combinations you probably (unknowingly) enjoy in your favorite restaurants."

— An interview on the Web site UKfood.co.uk (October 19, 2004) also mentions CULINARY ARTISTRY: "Q. If you had to give all but one of your cookery books to your chosen charity, which book would you keep, and why? A. I would keep two: CULINARY ARTISTRY, which is all about flavour matching and combining, and Quando Cucina Vano Le Nonne, written by family in tribute to my grandmother."

— Renee Schettler of The Washington Post (October 13, 2004) featured the recipe "Tomatillo Chicken Tacos" from our book THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF.

— SchwabLearning.org (October 2004): "Successful People with Learning Disabilities: Did you know that many successful and famous people grew up with learning disabilities (LD) and/or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD)? Actress Whoopi Goldberg, business leader Charles Schwab, and Olympic diver Greg Louganis, to name a few, are all inspirations....Andrew Dornenburg, an award-winning chef [who is dyslexic], says that cooking 'saved' him."

To read these and other stories, visit our Media Room here.

"We have started a program called ‘Reading Under the Redwoods.'  It is where we have writers, novelists, cookbook writers, etc., come and do readings. It is fabulous. Let me know when you are in our neck of the woods."
—Beth Casey, General Manager, Lark Creek Inn / Larkspur, CA

"Thanks very much for the email update — lots of great information. Best regards," 
—Judy Collins

"Greetings to you both.  Hope all is going well.  Thought you might want to look in on this new Spain food and wine web log I am working on: Spain: An Insider's Guide to Food, Wine, Culture and Travel at http://gerrydawesspain.blogspot.com. All my best,"
—Gerry Dawes / Suffern, NY

"…I understand and admire your openness and the affection you have shown through feeding the people you love....As my husband said four Christmases ago when he was pulling together a huge, elaborate Christmas dinner which seemed pointless to me because my father was in the hospital, ‘I can't make your father better, but I can make dinner.'  There was a lot of wisdom in those words."
—Morgan Dudley / New Hampshire

"Andrew, I found your article ["Dyslexic Chefs of America, Untie"] very interesting as in the line that ‘cooking saved you.' I absolutely love to cook and being from another country and learning a new language at a relatively late age made my situation more challenging. Thank you for the article."
—Suzanne Edwards, executive sous chef, Fox & Obel Food Market / Chicago, IL

"It is great to get your news.  George and I are in France finishing a new cookbook — 100 pasta recipes — and renovating a house for a 2005 rental. Brian Kingsford is running Al Forno in our absence and doing a super job.  Please give him a call if you are in Providence and feel like a grilled pizza or Clams Al Forno. With warm wishes,"
—Johanne Killeen, owner, Al Forno / Providence, RI (via France)

"Just reading your newsletter makes my salivary glands go ballistic!  Do you two actually dream about cooking?  Great information — thanks!"
—Jane Eyre McDonald, Eugene Hearing and Speech Center / Eugene, OR

"I just received your October e-Newsletter and forwarded it to my son Chris (Maynard). I had written you concerned about how Chris was moving to Atlanta (from Birmingham) and was very anxious about having to make a choice between two very good job offers. You said that he must follow his heart and do what he feels in his gut is right. To make a long story short, he has now been working for three weeks at Bacchanalia for Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison. Chris is SO happy there and Bacchanalia was just rated #1 in the Atlanta Zagat. I just wanted to thank you for your ‘wisdom' in our time of uncertainty and to update you on how Chris is doing now. Sincere thanks from one very proud mom,"
—Gini Stype / Eastern Long Island, NY

"Your October e-Newsletter was so heartfelt, warm and interesting...as always. My friend Dora is now on your list, and told me she loved it, and immediately hit the link for Indian Home Cooking [by Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness, which was recommended last month] and bought it."
—Rebecca Wilder / Tucson, AZ

"Nice newsletter — however, you have a link to the Women's Council of Realtors, not the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. Here is their link: http://www.womenchefs.org."
—Michael S. Williams, CHE; Chair, Hospitality & Tourism and Food Service Management Programs, Albuquerque TVI / Albuquerque, NM

Thanks, Michael — and while we're on corrections, last month we listed Susan Mabe's email address incorrectly. As Susan's company Time Savers in Ridgefield, Connecticut, is an invaluable service that plans, designs, and executes events for corporate and private clients (including many busy professionals in the Northeast), it's definitely worth having: TimeSav@aol.com.