A fireplace fire warms ones face, cooks ones food, and brings poetry into ones life.

Hearth cooking is the love of my life. I have poured that love into a book — The Magic of Fire, one hundred recipes for fireplace and campfire. Since this book is now available at Amazon.com in a “SEARCH INSIDE” edition, the best way to become familiar with it is to go to Amazon.com and have a look. As you will see it is both a beautiful book and informative. The Magic of Fire has been well received. It recieved a James Beard Award nomination in 2003, and won the European Gourmand World Cookbook award in that same year. The pages that follow are intended to supplement my book — inspire you to get involved in hearth cooking. If you have questions about building a fireplace for cooking, or any other questions about hearth cooking, please post your question at the appropriate forum.

I wrote the hearth cooking section for the new edition of the Joy of Cooking in collaboration with Susan and Ethan Becker. You will find in this new Joy a complete introduction to hearth cooking. Recipes throughout the book are linked to the hearth cooking section — so one place to begin exploring hearth cooking is with the new edition of the Joy of Cooking! You can order the new Joy from Amazon.com: Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006