After spending time as a jewelry importer, car salesman, computer builder, and luxury real estate agent, Meherwan Irani is currently a chef, restaurateur, and spice mogul. Along the way he's been named one of Time's People Changing the South, a Food & Wine Gamechanger, Southerner of the Year, and has won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. Meherwan lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his wife and business partner, Molly, and a minimum of two goldendoodles at all times.

Jamie Feldmar is the co-author of five previous cookbooks and one memoir, including the James Beard Award-winning Taste & Technique and IACP Award-recognized Italian American. After starting her career as a Gourmet magazine intern in New York (while moonlighting as a farmers market manager), she has gone on to write and edit for many of the country's top food publications. She lives in Los Angeles, California.