David Tanishas worked as a professional chef for over three decades, and is the author of severalacclaimed cookbooks, includingA Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, which was chosen as one of the 50 best cookbooksever by the Guardian/Observer (U.K.) and Heart of the Artichoke, which was nominated for a James Beard Award. He spent many years as chef with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California; he ran the kitchen of thehighly praised Caf Escalera in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and he operated a successfulprivate supper club inhis 17th-centurywalk-upin Paris. He has written for a number ofpublications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian/Observer (U.K.), Cooking Light,Bon Apptit, Fine Cooking, and Saveur. Tanis lives in Manhattan and has been writing the weekly City Kitchen column for the Food section of the New York Times for nearly six years.