Around the Table: Easy Menus for Cozy Entertaining at Home

Ellen Wright has been cooking and entertaining for more than forty years. Before writing cookbooks, she served as an assistant and recipe tester to James Beard and hosted his 75th birthday party, where he declared, "Ellen, I don't know anyone who is better at bringing people together, making them feel at home, and serving a damn good meal." Wright studied painting and drawing in college before she applied her artistic talent to the kitchen. In addition to working with Beard, Wright has also studied under Madhur Jaffrey, Lydie Marshall, and Julia Child. She has authored one previous cookbook, Bridgehampton Weekends (William Morrow). Though a regional cookbook, it garnered national media attention from newspapers, magazines, the Today show, and Larry King Live. The New York Times said of Wright, "It took Martha Stewart a dozen years, a slew of books, and a lifetime of self-promotion to get the kind of attention Ellen Wright has been showered with since her first book hit stores last month." She is also an interior designer whose clients include CBS Sports, Citicorp, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Brokaw, and Jane Pauley. Currently Wright divides her time between an apartment overlooking the East River in New York City and a renovated farmhouse in Bridgehampton, New York.