Book excerpt: This family cookbook morphed into much more for me during the writing process. It began by contacting friends and family to collect recipes for what I thought would be a simple process. During those conversations and with my own memories, a flood of personal history evolved in my mind. What began as a repository of food recipes became much more to me, and I decided to collect the process in the form of this book, The Diary of a Mad Chef, to also include photos of those people and selected short stories. Food has always been the center of our family's common narrative thread, and I attempted to place the face and the stories of my friends and family with the recipes as I remember them. Along with the feedback and photos from my friends and family, it became a two-year-long effort to compile, edit, and publish this book. The journey has been a magnificent experience for me, and I am grateful to have had the time and opportunity to write this book.