Acknowledgments

Because this Book is Largely an expression of my opinions about food and drink, it seems appropriate for me first of all to thank some of the people who have helped shape those opinions. Chief among these are: Claude Caspar-Jordan, mon père adoptif, who has taught me much about how the French eat, and think; his wife, Pepita, who showed me for the first time real French home cooking, up close; Jonathan Waxman, a boon companion at the table and obviously a kind of genius, since he agrees with me so often about food and wine (etc.); Roy Brady in particular (for teaching me to taste the wine and not its reputation) and the Saturday Lunch Boys in general—Joe, Sid, Bill, Lloyd, Dan, Norm, Marty, et al. (all those Madeiras! all those ‘29s and ‘45s!); Darrell Corti, who has shared his remarkable erudition generously and amiably with me for nearly twenty years; Karen Kelly Miller, who introduced me to real Italian food in Rome, long before it had shown its face in public in America; my friends in Barcelona, especially Agustí and Lluïsa Jausas and Lluïs and Lola Cruanyas, who opened a whole new (old) world of food to me, and made it possible for me to write my first real book; and the Viscount Furness, who offered me some of my most memorable early dining experiences and taught me several little lessons about wine that I have never forgotten.