This companion book to The French Culinary Institute's Public Television series hosted by Dorothy Hamilton brings together twenty-seven extraordinary chefs to tell the personal stories behind their culinary triumphs. Chefs have become figures of heightened interest in our culture over the past decade. We look at chefs as stars and to restaurants as their stage. The twenty-seven fascinating individuals who tell their stories in this book bring us into their world and reveal how their early years, their beliefs, and their passion for quality have helped them become modern culinary legends.