Veteran writer and cook Chad Ward is the author of An Edge in the Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Knives, named one of Slate.com’s Best Books of 2008 (who called it “brash, bossy and full of good council”) and the Chicago Tribune’s Favorite Food Books of 2008 (“Ward is passionate; he knows his stuff and wants you to know it too”). To date, more than 500,000 people have taken Chad’s online knife sharpening class on eGullet.org. He lives in North Carolina.