Changes

[swissmiss]

Leslie, when looking back on this project is there anything you wish you had done differently, whether in your research or your writing? Anything that you would revise for a second edition of the book?

[Leslie Brenner]

That's a great question, Swissmiss, and a really tough one. It's a question that kept me awake many, many nights after I turned in the book to my publisher. I'm about to drive six hours to San Francisco today, and I'll ponder it on the way and answer in the next 24 hours.

[swissmiss]

Thank you! I am looking forward to the answer.

[Leslie Brenner]

I think if I could do it all over again, I'd spend more time trying to get to the bottom of who Daniel Boulud is. He's a difficult person to get to know, and I think I'd try to spend even more time with him and paint a somewhat fuller portrait. I shied away from doing so, because I wanted the book to be about the restaurant more than about Daniel Boulud, but I think more on who is is wouldn't have hurted. I don't see, however, going back and making such changes in a revised edition: the book is really a snapshot, a year in the life of a restaurant, and I'd like the document to remain as such.