I had heard so much about you from my favorite online community, "Readerville.com." There is a specific thread devoted to literature for the table (and lots of playful chatting therein). There are some serious foodies there, and many authors who themselves love your work and have traveled extensively. (Katharine Weber comes to mind.) You have many, many fans.

I was in Italy for the first time in my life last spring. Almost a year ago exactly. The food was a revelation, of course. I discovered what everyone who goes to Italy knows: there is Italian food and then there is any other version which is a compromise of cheap tomatoes or too many inappropriate ingredients. Pity me, I was once forced to eat at an Olive Garden.

Since my return from Italy, I have sought in vain for an Italian cookbook that would show me how to make these simple dishes: butter, herbs, tomatoes, simplicity. I am a former caterer of no particular stature-but a natural cook. I don't aspire to CIA standards. I just want to serve food created with love to those who come to my table.

About a month ago, an author at Readerville gifted me with "any book in the Readerville bookstore you want" in exchange for some web design advice I gave him. Well, I can't buy a book without holding it in my hands. I went to the Bookshop Santa Cruz and fondled cookbooks and travel books. All of them, about Italy.

It was then I found your blessed, wondrous, perfect cookbook. I brought it home with me immediately-I made that author buy me a book that was worth an hour of my time.

I have already used your book probably ten times in the ensuing weeks. It's so, so wonderful. It is the essence of what I sought. My cooking sister, Kristen, went to Italy about four years ago, and she and I are constantly talking about what makes Italy so different and so special. (Must we apologize for not having been to France, about which you write even more?)

Okay, the lemon cream pasta is a natural because I have a Meyer lemon tree in my yard. I also have a profusion of tarragon, marjoram, thyme, rosemary and oregano. I live in the Monterey Bay on coastal California.

All I can do is thank you, voluminously and endlessly, from the bottom of my heart and soul. Your simple and pure distillation of the recipes of Italia are a holy offering.

I realize that I am late in discovering you. And now I have discovered you. You are the diamond in the jewels of my cookbook collection. My gratitude to you is boundless. I hope that, reading my little note to you, you have that happy feeling in yourself that your path is that path of goodness and light and passing the torch.

As I said in my review of your book at Amazon, "a big bacio to Patricia Wells." I do hope to cross the big salty pond again some day, and next time I intend to meet your favorite places.

Mille grazie, my dear.

Sincerely,
Tana Butler