Introduction NAME A DESSERT THAT APPEARS on both fast-food menus and the dessert menus of high-end restaurants and is the most-requested recipe at major cooking magazines. The answer? Cheesecake. Everybody loves them. Simple, yet elegant, cheesecakes are much easier to make than other traditional cakes, such as layer cakes, yet they're equally, if not more, impressive. When I took my mom to one of my book-signing events, the host served a cheesecake from my first book. My mom kept saying she would enjoy the cake more than the other guests would, so we should take the leftovers back to the hotel. My mom is a cheesecake-oholic, if there is such a thing. You have to watch her. She could eat a whole cheesecake by herself in one day. Come to think of it, maybe she has. But then, she does walk more than six miles a day and dances many nights of the week. I hope the 200 cheesecake recipes in this book will inspire equally excited responses from your family and friends. Excerpted from The Cheesecake Bible: Includes 200 Recipes by George Geary All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.