Karen Adler has written 13 books on grilling and barbecue, 9 of them together with Judith Fertig; together she and Judith bill themselves as "The BBQ Queens." Among their bestsellers is Fish and Shellfish, Grilled and Smoked. Adler is also the president and owner of Pigout Publications, a wholesaler and distributor of barbecue and grilling books into specialty markets.
Judith M. Fertig is a bestselling and award-winning cookbook author. She lives in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, where she develops recipes that celebrate the rich culinary traditions of the Heartland. A recognized authority on regional Midwestern cuisine and an experienced cookbook author and food writer, she has studied at the Cordon Bleu in London and La Varenne in Paris. Prairie Home Breads follows Fertig's definitive Prairie Home Cooking, a collection of recipes inspired by the abundant produce of the Midwestern states, including wild and heirloom fruits and vegetables, game, grains, and beef. The bestselling Prairie Home Cooking was a 1999 nominee for both the IACP Cookbook Award and the James Beard Book Award. Fertig is also the author of the award-winning Pure Prairie: Farm Fresh and Wildly Delicious Foods from the Prairie, as well as several books on barbeque with coauthor Karen Adler. In addition to these cookbooks, Fertig wrote the Great Plains chapter of the American version of Culinaria, a two-volume book on American culinary traditions. She is a contributor to numerous distinguished magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, the London Sunday Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Saveur, Sante, Country Living, and Country Home. Fertig was inspired to write the Prairie Home cookbooks while living in London. Although she had lived and traveled all over the Midwest, living abroad gave her a new perspective, revealing the Midwest as a region of culinary innovation, cultural diversity, and fresh and varied native foods and produce. Looking at this familiar region from a new perspective allowed Fertig to capture the honest wholesomeness of Midwestern cuisine in her cookbooks. To write Prairie Home Breads, Fertig visited Old World artisanal bakeries, farmhouse kitchens, rural church suppers, community bake sales, bustling urban ethnic bakeries, farmer's markets, and home kitchens throughout the Midwest. Fertig shares her considerable culinary expertise and her appreciation of the Midwestern kitchen in cooking classes and seminars and as a restaurant consultant.