Rick and Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures

Renowned chef, author, and television personality Rick Bayless has prepared gourmet meals for his share of celebrities. But when asked about his most memorable cooking experiences, he immediately answers, "with my family and friends, at my home or theirs-whether around the block or around the globe." Lanie Bayless has grown up cooking and eating with her chef-dad in their restaurant, at their home, and in other people's homes from Oklahoma City to Tokyo-with stops in Mexico, Morocco, France, Thailand, and Peru along the way. But her perspective is different from his. He's the celebrated chef with decades of cooking and traveling experience, and she's a teenager with ideas of her own.

Rick & Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures is a lively, multigenerational dialogue between two not-always-like-minded cooks. Each brings a unique outlook to the wide variety of flavors, cooking techniques, ingredients, and travel experiences they shared during the four years they worked on this book.

For Rick, sharing a meal is one of the most powerful catalysts for common understanding between parents and kids, friends and families, and people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This unique cookbook of more than 100 international classics (as well as down-home American favorites) offers simple, step-by-step recipes that will draw everyone to the table. Here the wisdom and experience of a famous chef are transformed into the everyday advice of an at-home dad.

Rick Bayless is the chef-proprietor of Chicago's hugely successful Frontera Grill and its elegant neighbor, Topolobampo. He has been named Chef of the Year by the prestigious IACP and the James Beard Foundation. He is the author of four best-selling cookbooks and has produced and starred in two public television series, the second of which is in its fourth season.

Lanie Bayless grew up in a restaurant-literally. She has a room just above the Frontera Grill's kitchen. Lanie learned a lot of what she knows about food and cooking from her parents.

CHRISTOPHER HIRSHEIMER is the photographer of Authentic Vietnamese Cooking, The New Irish Table, and Fried & True.