Rosemary Baker

Rosemary Baker has spent more years in the kitchen than she cares to count

—and she wouldn't trade a single one.

A former pro chefwho now writes cookbooks,mostly because it meant

she could work in pajamas. She's built her (comfortable) career on the radical

belief that phenomenal food shouldn't require a culinary degree—or matching socks.

Her recipes come from real kitchen experience: the kind where you learn as much

from a failed sauce as from a perfect one.

She develops every recipe herself, testing and retesting until it works for the home

cook who's short on time but big on flavor.

She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and a wooden spoon that's seen better days.

Her entire philosophy is built on a lazy (but brilliant) truth: you shouldn't have to work harder than your food does.