The Cook (aka Richard White) is an American who has been living in Bremen, Germany since 1970.  His love for the art seems to be in the family blood. His grandmother had her own catering business, his father was a cook and his daughter also learned the profession here in Germany. Only a few things exhilarate him more than standing in the kitchen and preparing a meal for 8. His next greatest love, bicycling, is very appropriate because it lessens the inherent danger associated with cooking and eating. The recipes  I don't claim originality for any of these recipes. They have been collected over many, many years in the kitchen from various sources ranging from my grandmother to "essen & trinken" a very good German food magazine. Since I've been living in Germany for more than 40 years, it goes without saying that many of the recipes were originally in German and use the metric system of measurements. In converting from the metric to American system I have rounded off the numbers: e.g. if the recipe calls for 200 grams of rice which is about 7/8 of a cup, I convert that into 1 cup of rice. For this reason you may have to vary some of the ingredients if you find the rice too moist, the dough too dry, etc. For help see conversion The many references to things German are simply due to the fact that I’ve been living in Germany since 1970. Most of the recipes are in English, a few are only in German and some are in both languages. I hope that someday they will all be in both languages. I’ve included a little English-German dictionary of some of the more common cooking terminology illustration by eva kraus