George Geary is an award-winning chef, best-selling author, and renowned educator. A former pastry chef for the Walt Disney Company, Geary is a Certified Culinary Professional, and was recently chosen as the Culinary Educator of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. He is perhaps best known for creating all of the cheesecakes for The Golden Girls and other top-rated television programs. Geary has worked as a critic and/or judge for ABC’s The Taste with Anthony Bourdain, The American Baking Competition with Jeff Foxworthy, Hell's Kitchen, Supermarket Superstar, and many other popular television shows. He also taught cooking classes aboard Holland America Lines. From 1982 to 2010, Geary was the culinary coordinator of the Los Angeles County Fair. Geary is the author of L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants and Made in California, as well as nine cookbooks including Fair Foods, The Cheesecake Bible, and The Complete Baking Cookbook. He lives in Los Angeles.  Charles Perry is a culinary historian, food columnist, and journalist. He spent 18 years as a staff writer for the food section of the Los Angeles Times and is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on medieval Arabic cuisine. A native Angeleno, he has co-authored and translated many cookbooks, including Joachim Splichal’s Patina Cookbook and Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook. He is the co-founder and president of the Culinary Historians of Southern California.