Nancie McDermott is an expert on the food and culture of Thailand. She has written several cookbooks and contributes recipes and features on food and travel to Food & Wine, Bon Appetit and national newspapers. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and teaches cooking classes nationwide.  Her cookbooks include 300 Best Stir-Fry Recipes and Southern Cakes.

Steve McDonagh and his partner Dan Smith, aka The Hearty Boys, have thrown parties for everyone from Hillary Clinton to Northwestern University. Their television series, Party Line with the Hearty Boys, began after they won The Next Food Network Star. They have appeared on CBS’ The Early Show, and in Life, The New Yorker, the New York Times, and other publications. They live in Chicago, where they recently opened their first restaurant, HB: A Hearty Boys Spot. Talk with Your Mouth Full is their first cookbook.

Alice Medrich is inspired and inspiring. In Berkeley, California, in the 1970s, her dessert shop, Cocolat, set new standards of excellence. She has been learning, teaching, and sharing what she loves about dessert making for thirty years. She brings to us an obsessive approach to recipes (meticulously written and tested), a commitment to quality ingredients, and a profound understanding of technique. Her contributions have resulted in the country’s highest cookbook honors, including three Cookbooks of the Year, most recently from the International Association of Culinary Professionals for BitterSweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate. Her other books include Pure Dessert and Chocolate Holidays. Alice lives in Berkeley with her daughter, Lucy.

Chef Morimoto has been the Japanese iron chef on the Food Network's weekly show, "Iron Chef," and its spinoff "Iron Chef America," since 1999. The show airs in the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, and Hong Kong. Formerly the Executive Chef of the Sony Club and Nobu, Chef Morimoto now has his own restaurants in New York, Philadelphia, Tokyo, and Mumbai, and also created his own brand of sake and beer. "Morimoto" is his first cookbook.

Kathy FitzHenry from The Occasional Gourmet (San Francisco, CA) defines Muscovado as: "Muscovado is also known as the moist sugar. It is an unrefined sugar that takes its name and color from the sugar cane juice it is made from. It carries a very strong molasses flavor. It is a very dark brown color, coarser and stickier than most brown sugars. It offers good resistance to high temperatures with a reasonably good shelf life. This unrefined sugar goes well with coffee and other beverages. "