Betty King has lived, cooked and entertained in Ohio, New York City, Tanzania, Washington, DC and Miami Beach and during extended stays in London and France. She has traveled widely in East Africa and Europe and has visited the Middle East. Each stop on her journeys has added new tastes and flavors to her cuisine. The menus and recipes in this book are interspersed with memories of how she came to develop or collect them. Betty dislikes spending time in the kitchen after her guests arrive, so most of her menus can be prepared in advance. Further, she believes that one should cook once to eat twice and her chapter on "Second Acts" describes how to bring recipes back in a new guise for another meal. She hopes to embolden her readers to experiment and develop their own new recipes.