by Cat Cora
To Barbara Karrol: thank you for your brilliant counsel, continuing friendship, and, last, your endurance.
Thank you to all my business partners at HBF, Hojeij Branded Foods. I want to extend a special thanks to Regynald G. Washington, the CEO of my fan club, for your belief in my talent over the years. Thank you to my teams at the Cat Cora’s Kitchen and Cat Cora’s Gourmet Market airport restaurants at San Francisco International, Houston, Salt Lake City, and, as of this writing, Atlanta, as well as my international partners and team at Ocean by Cat Cora on Sentosa Island, Singapore, and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). Thank you all for creating hugely successful restaurants with me and for being the day-to-day supreme teams!
To my partners at Grecian Delight: thank you for your dedication to quality and loyalty.
I want to thank my partners Sherry Villanueva and Brian Kelly at Bird Dog Mercantile in Santa Barbara, and our rocking team at BDM!
I want to thank my legal teams at Barnes and Thornburg and Manatt, and thanks also to my teams at UTA, 3Arts, and ID PR.
To any other subjects of this book who were at one time either hurt by me or who hurt me, I give the gift of this quotation:
As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and anger behind, I’d still be in prison.
—Nelson Mandela
I am free.
CAT CORA grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, attended the Culinary Institute of America, and worked in New York City before traveling overseas to apprentice in Europe with world-renowned French chefs Georges Blanc and Roger Vergé. After the Food Network discovered her in 1999, she went on to become the first female Iron Chef. She is the founder of the charitable organization Chefs for Humanity, and she has built a brand that includes food lines, cookware, and restaurants around the globe. She lives in Santa Barbara, California, with her wife and four sons. For more information, please visit CatCora.com.
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Copyright © 2015 by Catherine Cora
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First Scribner hardcover edition September 2015
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Author photo courtesy of Cat Cora
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-4767-6614-0
ISBN 978-1-4767-6616-4 (ebook)