A seasoned food professional with 20 years of experience, Denise Vivaldo has catered more than 10,000 parties and has cooked for such guests as George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Prince Charles, Bette Midler, Suzanne Somers, Merv Griffin, Cher, Aaron Spelling, Sly Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Maria Shriver. She began her culinary training at the Ritz Escoffier and La Varenne in Paris, and then graduated Chef de Cuisine from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

In 1988, Denise founded Food Fanatics, a catering, recipe-development, and food-styling firm based in Los Angeles, California. Since that time, she has catered for such events as the Academy Awards Governor’s Ball, Sunset Magazine’s Taste of Sunset, and Hollywood wrap parties. She has also catered and styled food for countles local and nationally syndicated television shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NapaStyle with Michael Chiarello, and Inside Dish with Rachel Ray.

Denise is also the author of How to Start a Home-Based Catering Business, which has sold more than 125,000 copies, and How to Start a Home-Based Personal Chef Business. Denise has also pioneered her own Culinary Entrepreneurship Program, teaching catering and food styling seminars and workshops across the country. Denise lives with her husband in Los Angeles.

After 20 years of working as an art director and graphic designer, Cindie enrolled at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Cooking for family and friends had always given her such joy that she decided to make a career out of food. She has been working with Food Fanatics since 2001, styling food for print and television, developing and testing recipes, and designing culinary marketing and advertising materials. Cindie is also webmaster of www.foodfanatics.com.

Best known for her international bestseller, InterCourses: an aphrodisiac cookbook, Martha Hopkins has worked on numerous cookbooks, including New Tastes from Texas by Stephan Pyles, Meat and Let's Grill by John Harrisson, Low-Carb Meals in Minutes by Linda Gassenheimer, among many others. She teamed up with Randall Lockridge in 1996 to create Terrace Partners, a book packaging and general advertising firm based in Waco, Texas. Most recently, Martha and Randall released an updated version of their bestseller cookbook, The New InterCourses: an aphrodisiac cookbook. They have worked with such publishers as Clarkson Potter New York, Bay Books/SOMA San Francisco, Lonely Planet Australia, and Hamlyn Octopus London.