Monday, August 17, 1-3pm Max and Eli Sussman are Michigan natives who have a treat for those of us who are less than gifted in the kitchen. Eli says: "We know that cooking can sometimes be intimidating and challenging and we want to make it easy and fun. You don’t have to go to culinary school (neither of us did) in order to be creative and work wonders in the kitchen. All you need to do is try.   How did we come up with the idea for our cookbook? Growing up in Huntington Woods in suburban Detroit, we never had a microwave in our home; we didn’t drink pop (soda) and we rarely had chips or candy lying around the house. We survived (barely) on home cooked meals prepared by our parents and wholesome healthy snacks. The lifestyle our parents chose really had an impact on us. Max and I learned our way around the kitchen simply by helping our parents cook meals. If we were hungry, we didn’t have the option of popping something in the microwave – we had to cook it ourselves. As we got older Max and I were constantly fielding requests from friends and roommates about how to do simple kitchen tasks.  They ask questions like – “How do I boil pasta? How do I make grilled cheese? Can I really make my own salad dressing? What the heck is medium rare?” “I always spend too much money grocery shopping and come out with nothing.”  “How do you turn on the oven?”  Out of this need, our cookbook idea was born. We love to cook simple, clean and delicious foods that people our age will love and be able to make over and over in their own kitchen. We both attended Hillel Day School in Metro-Detroit and went to Camp Tavor, a Jewish summer camp in Michigan where Max was the chef and I served as his assistant chef for 2 summers. It was at our summer camp where our love for cooking began to flourish. We once stayed up with our kitchen squad for over 24 hours producing the visitors day meal for over 350 guests. We’ve prepared feasts for our extended family countless times, even cooking a turduken (duck in chicken, chicken in turkey, stuffing throughout) while ‘up north’ vacationing in Michigan. We’ve flipped burgers, bused tables, preped, diced, expo’ed,  garnished, catered and  worked the breakfast lunch AND dinner rush.  And we love it. Ok, we loved everything besides the busing… We began writing the cookbook as I attended Michigan State University and Max studied at the University of Michigan. Combined we’ve worked in food courts (yes, I worked at the Detroit Zoo), vegetarian restaurants, delis, upscale fine dining establishments and for 2 summers cooking at our childhood summer camp. Throughout college I worked at a Greek American grill called Lou and Harry’s while Max excelled at one of Ann Arbor’s highest quality fine dining establishments, eve-the restaurant. Coming from such different cooking backgrounds with diverse skill sets has allowed us to fuse our talents to produce a unique cookbook that is easy to understand, accessible to use, and really fun to read. Max now works as a full time professional chef, working at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, MI. I currently moonlight as a chef for catering companies in Los Angeles, CA aside from working at The Gary Group, a music marketing firm."     Come meet Max in the store!