Cordon Bleu trained Becky Bayer works as an editor and agent at Keyner and Smith, a high end cookbook publisher in Seattle, their products more aspirational cookbooks destined for coffee tables than well dog eared books one would pull off the shelf to prepare a home-cooked meal. She is renowned for being the best not only for her knowledge of cooking and cuisines, but her attention to details, especially authenticity. Much to her chagrin as her much desired promotion to partner rests on its success, her boss Marty assigns her to work on the next cookbook of television chef Will Fryer, someone generally outside of the company's stable of authors, he more a celebrity hack than real chef. Not trained, Will, a widowed father to adolescent David, got into the business of cooking solely to get quick and easy meals on the table that David would eat. As such, Will takes shortcuts with canned ingredients. While Will's fans love him, and his cookbooks are successful, those in the culinary business, including Becky's boyfriend, food critic Robert Flannigan, don't think the food is either good or healthy. While Becky and Will have the same goal of elevating this next cookbook, they butt heads in having different ideas of what that actually means within their well-defined brands. Also making it difficult is that Will has decided to make this book on southwest cooking, having spent some time in New Mexico as a child. Becky, whose family is also from there, would focus on that cuisine if she ever opened her dream restaurant. As Becky and Will try to bridge the gap between them, they may discover something missing in their lives in losing track of personal goals. Written by Huggo
