"Almost all the recipes on offer here, from pickles to pastry, are doable in the humblest of kitchens..."
-"The Wall Street Journal"

Ken Albala is professor of history at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he teaches courses on the Renaissance and Reformation, Food History, and the History of Medicine. He is the author of many books on food, including "Eating Right in the Renaissance, Food in Early Modern Europe, Cooking in Europe 1250 1650, The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe, Beans: A History" (winner of the 2008 International Association of Culinary Professionals Jane Grigson Award), "Pancake," and the forthcoming "World Cuisines" written with the Culinary Institute of America. He is also the editor of three food series for Greenwood Press with 27 volumes in print and is now editing a four-volume "Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia." Albala has been the book reviews editor of "Food Culture and Society" for the past six years and is now co-editor of the journal. He is currently researching a history of theological controversies surrounding fasting in the Reformation Era and editing two collected volumes of essays, one on the Renaissance, the other on food and faith.Rosanna Nafziger grew up on a mountain in West Virginia. She spent her girlhood working in the orchard, planting beans, and selling pies at the farmers' market. Now she translates the traditions of her Appalachian Mennonite upbringing to the urban kitchen on her blog, Paprikahead.com. A chef, nanny, and editor, she lives in San Francisco. This is her first book."