The Big Apple Exchange

alexandra leaf is a culinary historian and cookbook author. Her publications include The Impressionists' Table: Recipes and Gastronomy of 19th Century France and Van Gogh's Table at the Auberge Ravoux. She divides her time between New York City and the Hudson River Valley, where she tends a few very old apple trees.

joel seaman earned a BFA from Tufts University in conjunction with The School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He worked as a cabinetmaker for eighteen years, ten of them as Master Cabinet Maker at Hancock Shaker Village. In his youth Seaman was enthralled with photography and traditional Japanese culture, and during a visit to Japan in 1998 he returned to photography. His work has been exhibited in the Northeast since 1999. See joelseaman.com.