James Peterson is an award-winning cookbook writer and cooking teacher, whose career began as a young cook in Paris. In the mid-eighties, he was a partner and cook at the Greenwich Village restaurant Le Petit Robert. He is the author of nine award-winning and short-listed cookbooks, including the James Beard Cookbook of the Year Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making, as well as Essentials of Cooking, Glorious French Food, What's a Cook to Do?, and Cooking. He teaches, writes about, photographs, lives, breathes, and cooks fine food.