Publisher: Dorie Greenspan

Although I burned my parents' kitchen down when I was 13, didn't bake so much as a chocolate-chip cookie until I was married and worked on a doctorate in gerontology thinking I was going to do research in a university, I am a cookbook author and can't imagine any work that could have made me happier. Over the past 20 years I've written 10 cookbooks and won six James Beard and IACP awards for them, including Cookbook of the Year ... twice! I won the IACP Cookbook-of-the-Year Award for Desserts by Pierre Herme and for The New York Times Bestseller, Around My French Table. I've also been named to the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America. And I've got a new book coming out in October: Baking Chez Moi, Recipes From My Paris Kitchen to Your Kitchen Anywhere. Baking Chez Moi is filled with recipes for the simple, homey, wonderfully delicious sweets that my friends and I bake at home in Paris. I'm the co-author of two cookbooks with Pierre Hermé, Paris's king of pastry; I wrote the Café Boulud Cookbook with Daniel Boulud, the famous French chef in America (and beyond); and had the great honor and terrific fun of writing Baking with Julia, for Julia Child. In 2006, Baking From My Home to Yours was published. I was thrilled to be able to write this book because it gave me the chance to share the recipes I'd made and the things I'd learned over 30 years of baking at home and in the kitchens of some of the best chefs in America and France. Shortly after the book was published, an online baking club, Tuesdays with Dorie, was formed so that members could bake their way through the book and learn from it and each other. The group finished the book's 300+ recipes and is now deep into Baking with Julia. Baking was about my long-running love affair with pastry. My last book is about my other great love: France and its food. Around My French Table is filled with stories of French life and more than 300 recipes for the elbows-on-the-table food that my friends and I are making in France today. Another online group, French Fridays with Dorie, was formed and the members – they come from all over the world – are cooking like mad. Soon they'll be baking their way through Baking Chez Moi. I'm married to Michael, Joshua is our son, and we have three kitchens. I commute from New York City to Westbrook, Connecticut to Paris, France and back again and never know which pantry needs more vanilla or which place has which charger for which piece of electronic gear.