Ina Yalof takes us on an insid­er’s jour­ney into New York’s pul­sat­ing food scene along­side the men and women who call it home: Dominique Ansel declares what great good for­tune led him to make the first cronut; Lenny Berk explains why Woody Allen’s moth­er would allow only him to slice her lox at Zabar’s; Ghaya Oliveira, who came to New York as a young Tunisian stock­bro­ker, opens up about her hard­scrab­ble yet swift tra­jec­to­ry from dish­wash­er to exec­u­tive pas­try chef at Daniel; Restau­ra­teur Eddie Schoen­feld describes his evo­lu­tion from a Nice Jew­ish Boy from Brook­lyn to New York’s indis­putable Chi­nese food maven.

From old-school­ers such as David Fox, third-gen­er­a­tion own­er of Fox’s U‑bet syrup, and the out­spo­ken Upper West Side butch­er ​“Schatzie” to new-kids-on-the-block includ­ing Patrick Collins, sous chef at The Dutch and Brook­lyn arti­san Lau­ren Clark of Sucre Mort Pra­lines, Food and the City is a fas­ci­nat­ing oral his­to­ry with an unfor­get­table gallery of New York­ers who embody the heart and soul of a culi­nary metropolis.