Paul Luna
Luna has traveled around the world, experienced many cultures and learned several languages through food. In teaching the craft of cooking, he has built lifelong friendships with kids ranging in age from four all the way to eighty-four.
In this fictional story, Luna draws on his memory to chronicle the challenges, fears and triumphs that he himself experienced, and also experienced through the students he has taught.
With more than nineteen years in the culinary industry as a starred chef, he decided that he wanted to begin developing recipes for living—simple lessons for future generations to develop awareness, build confidence and make friends.
Luna was born in the Dominican Republic to parents of Spanish and Italian descent. He grew up in the heart of Manhattan, where he helped his father manage a downtown grocery store. As a teenager, he began working for some of the country’s most talented fine dining chefs. He learned the business from the bottom up and eventually became a chef who has worked in New York, Milan, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Mexico, Maui, Sardinia, Ibiza and beyond. Today, he lives in San Jose, Calif., with his fiancée, Cynthia, who also helped write this book.
Cynthia Thomet
Cynthia Thomet was born on a Caribbean island called Trinidad to a Trinidadian father and a Swiss mother. After thirteen years of attending an international school (where she learned French), she eventually moved to Switzerland where she also learned Italian and German. These days, she is learning new communications skills through video, blogging, publishing and old-fashioned letter writing.
Fiorella Pacheco-Echevarria
Fiorella Pacheco-Echevarria translated the English version of this story during a holiday trip back to her hometown, Lima, Peru. Currently living in the Washington, D.C. area, she is exploring a career that combines her international background and interest in marketing.
Gabrielle Gramegna
At the time Gabrielle Gramegna illustrated the images for this book, she was a freshman at the California College of the Arts. Part Peruvian, she grew up in Northern California.