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- Creators of the Ultimate Cook Book series of cookbooks for HarperCollins--a 900-recipe compendium cookbook plus a ten-volume, single-subject companion series
- Contributing Editors to Eating Well Magazine with a feature article and a two columns ("Serves Two" and "Farm Finds") in every issue
- Featured Columnists every month on weightwatchers.com ("Everyday Gourmet") and now regular contributers to the new weightwatchers.com men's site
- Featured columnists in Relish Magazine ("The New American Farmer")
- Featured columnists in every issue of Today's Health and Wellness ("Quick Gourmet")
- Regular contributors to Cooking Light --and as of January '08, featured in a column called "Cooking Class"
- On-air "food column" once a week on the Dave Durian Show on WBAL-AM, Baltimore's biggest drive-time radio show
How They Got Here...
As a creative director, Bruce Weinstein worked at some of New York's top agencies: Grey, BBDO, and Spier. All the while, he maintained connections in the food industry, connections that took root when he attended Johnson and Wales. While directing projects for Tide and Doubleday, he freelanced at the Food Group, a food marketing agency, where he created such brands as Lea and Perrins Barbecue Sauce and developed cocktails for Disney World's Pleasure Island; he also developed drink recipes for Bols, Bacardi, and José Cuervo. This culinary/creative sidelight led to his first book, Frozen Drinks With or Without the Buzz (Clarkson Potter, 1997).
Meanwhile, Mark Scarbrough did his graduate work in American literature at the University of Wisconsin; for three years, he was the department's lecturer for its 1000-student, introductory courses. His lectures proved so popular, they were picked up by a local PBS station. In 1993, he was hired by Saint Edward's University (Austin, Texas) and was well on his way to tenure when he took a job writing food content for a small internet start-up in Phoenix: AOL. In 1997, with optioned screenplays and a syndicated column in alternative newspapers, Mark moved to Manhattan to pursue writing full-time.
There, he and Bruce began to develop their creative team. Their first cookbook, The Ultimate Ice Cream Book (Morrow, 1999 has proved a smash hit with a quarter million copies in print. These are not complicated recipes--they are the basics, spiked and jazzed. Don't be crazed by the authenticity bugaboo--have a party instead.
The ice cream book was the impetus for their best-selling "ultimate" series that now includes The Ultimate Party Drink Book (2000), The Ultimate Candy Book (2000), The Ultimate Shrimp Book (2002), The Ultimate Brownie Book (2002), The Ultimate Potato Book (2003), The Ultimate Muffin Book (2004), The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book (2004), The Ultimate Frozen Dessert Book (2005), and The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book (2005).
In March, 2007, Bruce and Mark brought out a compendium volume, The Ultimate Cook Book: 900 New Recipes, Thousands of Ideas . Already chosen as a main selection of the Book of the Month Club, this hardcover cookbook will now be the flag-ship of their best-selling series.
But life is not only found in ultimates. In February, 2004, Bruce and Mark's first hardcover, Cooking for Two , hit store shelves. They have also written Grilling Essentials (2002) for the Cooking Club of America and have ghost-written The Stonewall Kitchen Cookbook (2001) and Dr. Phil's Weight Loss Solution Cookbook (2004).
In 2000, they decided to branch into food journalism. Five years later, Bruce and Mark are Contributing Editors to Eating Well (in which they write the every-issue "Serves Two" column, based solely on their personal lives, and "Farm Finds," a column that highlights the latest products from America's small producers.)
They also write a regular column in Today's Health and Wellness ("Quick Gourmet"). As of June, 2005, they are the first-ever columnists on weightwatchers.com ("Everyday Gourmet"); they'll offer a monthly narrative about their lives and two recipes that arise from their work.
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