IT ALMOST GOES BEYOND SAYING, but had better be said all the same, that boundless love and thanks go to Bridget Healy, my wife and partner in Café Paradiso, who would top most of the lists of acknowledgement below (except vegetable production!) and whose energy, taste and spirit define Café Paradiso more than anything or anyone else.
The production of this book, once I had written the recipes, was a much less stressful process than I had been led to expect. Certainly, I had the dream publishers in Atrium because I knew that they were almost as passionate about food as they were about books, a trait I noticed in just about everyone who worked on the book - not only was all of the food cooked for photography edible, but most of it was scoffed in the process. I want to give special thanks to the following: John Foley and Lisa Sheridan at Bite! Associates who took on the design work as a labour of love; Jörg Köster for his obsessive attention to detail with the photography; Eoin Kelly whose work on the cover is nothing like I imagined yet exactly what I hoped for; Mags Curtin for the dessert recipes; Marble & Lemon for allowing us to raid the shop; everyone in the Café Paradiso kitchen who kept the show on the road while my eye was off the ball, especially Jonathan, John and Mags. Also, Ger Cronin and Pat O’Brien for advice and testing.
