RICK TRAMONTO has been cooking since he was a teenager growing up in Rochester, New York, as part of a large Italian family. He worked at some of the finest restaurants in the United States and Europe before settling in Chicago, where he is chef and partner of five restaurants. He was the founding chef of Trio in Evanston, Illinois, and then in 1999 opened the award-winning Tru restaurant, a Relais & Châteaux property in Chicago, which has received four stars from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Magazine. Rick has been featured in USA Today, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, People, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Wine Spectator, and Conde Nast Traveler. He has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, and on PBS. Rick was named Best Chef in the Midwest by the James Beard Foundation for 2002. Tru was awarded the James Beard Best Service in America award in 2007 and was named in the Top 50 Best Restaurants in the World in 2000 by Conde Nast Traveler.

MARY GOODBODY is a nationally known food writer and editor. Her credits include Tru, Amuse-Bouche, Fantastico and Taste: Pure and Simple. She has contributed significantly to books such as Back to the Table, The Naked Chef, How to Be A Domestic Goddess, and The Morton’s Steak Bible, among others. She lives outside New York City.