ABOUT THIS COOK:

I cook and garden (or garden and cook, depending on the season) on a hilltop in northeast Pennsylvania. I always liked to cook but I became more serious and systematic about it when I wrote "Spoonfuls of Germany", a cookbook about German regional foods. Shortly afterwards I started gardening for food, and today I cannot imagine living without either one.

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  In France, what I thought were gnocchi but it was brain. Innards are definitely not for me.

• What do you cook when home alone?
  I barely cook when I am home alone - without other eaters around, I am not overly motivated.

• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  My hands - the only irreplacable tool of a cook.

• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  Not more than eight