Sheri Castle was born in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and she’s always been at home in the kitchen and the garden out its back door. She wrote her first recipe at age 4, studied English at The University of North Carolina, and through the years has combined her passion and knowledge for cooking with an innate storytelling gift. She develops recipes for publications and restaurants, teaches at culinary schools, collaborates on books with chefs and personalities, she publishes her own books, and now hosts a television show, The Key Ingredient on PBS North Carolina. Sheri is a calm guide in the kitchen, and that comes from a rich foundation of research, contemplation, and curiosity. She is a scholar of Southern food among us, always inviting us to the table for a good meal.