A wonderful new memoir with innovative recipes from the James Beard Award-winning food writer who has been called the heir to M.F.K. Fisher.

Colette Rossant's first two books describe her fascinating and exotic--if often unhappy--childhood in France and Egypt. But the biggest adventure of her life began in 1955, when she sailed to New York with her new husband James Rossant, an American architect. At first she found Americans' manners to be as mystifying as their cuisine. But soon she was raising a family, renovating a town house, and embarking on an extraordinary career.

The cooking school for children she started turned into a starring role on a PBS television series, and as New York magazine's Underground Gourmet, she hailed la nouvelle cuisine, the food revolution that woke up America's bland palate.

With and without her husband and children, she traveled to Africa, China, Japan, and South America, where she learned culinary secrets from master chefs and humble housewives alike (and generously shares their recipes with her readers). Spirited and indomitable, endlessly curious and adventurous, Colette Rossant's writing, like Ruth Reichl's, appeals as much to the heart and soul as to the stomach; she inspires us to savor every meal and every day.