"Joyce Goldstein," wrote Sharon SlivaSan Francisco Focus, "has broken every rule in the book on her way to becoming one of America's most respected and original chefs." How true. Goldstein didn't start out with a CIA degree, an apprenticeship in a French kitchen, or peeling carrots for a big-shot chef. Nonetheless, one cooking school, twelve books, three Beard Awards and one amazing restaurant later, she is unquestionably a powerful force on the gastronomic landscape.

Goldstein, who grew up in 1940s Brooklyn, was often ribbed by family because of her inability to eat mom's terrible food. Eventually, she taught herself how to cook while attending art classes at Yale. Art brought her to Rome, where she painted and learned the secrets of Roman cuisine at the street markets. Her love affair with great food blossomed.

A few years later, Goldstein was living in San Francisco and raising three children. Too busy to paint, she started teaching cooking classes out of her home; by 1971, she had founded the California Street Cooking School. A decade later her friend Alice Waters asked her for a favor: to make the breads and pastas for the new café at Chez Panisse. Soon, Goldstein was running the café, and by 1984, she had launched her own groundbreaking restaurant, Square One. She earned rave reviews for turning out what Andrew Williams of Bay Food called "gutsy and rigorously authentic Mediterranean fare." In 1992 she won a Beard Award for Back to Square One (William Morrow); in 1993, she won another Beard Award for Festive Occasions (Williams Sonoma), and the James Beard/American Express Best Chef: California award. These days, Goldstein is the visiting executive chef of the Wine Spectator Restaurant at CIA Greystone, an instructor at the school, and a prolific writer. Her new book, Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen (Chronicle), takes her back to her roots, combining a passion for Italian food with her Jewish heritage. It's a long way from overcooked chicken and stringy asparagus in Brooklyn, and we foodies have savored every moment of Goldstein's amazing culinary journey.