Eric Butler was born in Oklahoma and raised in California by parents who made sure that he knew that he was really from Louisiana, as celebrated every day at his mother’s dinner table. He has had a career in global healthcare and has lived in (and relished the culinary treats of) France, Germany, Guernsey, Belgium and England. He converses easily in five foreign languages but cooks in many more. He has taken up the study of Navajo and is learning the secrets of New Mexican chilies.