Born and raised in the large Syrian/Lebanese community of Brooklyn, New York, Virginia Jerro Gerbino, a grandmother herself, is the family cook and the keeper of its culinary traditions. She has inherited her love of cooking from her mother Helen, who excelled in the preparation of Syrian pastries. She is a legal secretary and now resides in New Jersey. Her first cousin and co-author Philip M. Kayal, also born in Brooklyn and presently residing in New Jersey, is a recently retired sociologist at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and the author of several books on the Arab-American experience. Realizing that food is part of ethnic identity and heritage, the authors see this cookbook as a necessary contribution to the culinary melting pot of America.