By Michael Walsh

Wars, rumors of wars and arguments with French Prime Ministers did not deter F&B International from sending Paris Bureau Chief Eric Gaudet to visit with our friends at the great hotels in the Mauritius Islands. Look for Eric’s in- depth article in this magazine, and look up more pictures & hotel information on www.fbworld.com.

Back here on the home front, we traveled to Texas. Thank you, friends at the Texas Restaurant Association. We would never have found Perini Ranch in Buffalo Gap without you. We learned some great Tex Mex recipes and wood fired barbecue tricks to pass on to our readers. Check out Steve Aja's beautiful food shots with recipes, and stories to boot about the chefs that pioneered Tex Mex and the whole Southwestern Cuisine genre. This is authentic wood fired barbecue heaven, and to quote our new best friend Matt Martinez (who we can't wait to go back and visit), “and I ain't lying, neither!” The meats all came from Preferred Meats, so for more information on purchasing, go to the Preferred Meats web link at www.fbworld.com.

Next we traveled in our own backyard to Napa, California for a memorable evening with Francis Ford Coppola. Press from all over the country were there to drink very rare Inglenook wines, as we listened to extraordinary news concerning the expansion of the Neibaum-Coppola Winery.

For those of you who think that pizza is only an American experience, we invite you to think again! Travel with international writer Lucy Gordan-Rastelli to Elba, Italy, where she brilliantly captures the winners of this year's pizza contest.

And then hello Donald Ziraldo, founder of Inniskillin Icewine in Canada. We feel like we know you personally, as we have not one, but two articles written by two writers with different perspectives. We think you'll enjoy them.

We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

Sincerely,
Michael Walsh
Publisher