Michael Ruhlman was born in 1963 in Cleveland and graduated Duke in 1985 with a BA in literature. His first book, Boy's Themselves (1996), revealed life at an all-boy day school. His second, the Making of a Chef came in 1997 and was re-released in 2009 in a new paperback edition. Michael's other published works include The Soul of a Chef (2000), Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard (2001), and Walk on Water (2003). He co-wrote The French Laundry Cookbook (1999) with Thomas Keller and A Return to Cooking (2002) with Eric Ripert, chef-owner of Le Bernardin.