"There was an immediate knowing that we were kindred spirits," Coburn recalls. "Ana was then exec chef for the very trendy and popular Portabella restaurant in the heart of Carmel-By-The-Sea. By the second question into the interview, I think we both felt as if we'd known each other forever, or at least as long as our mutual chef careers spanned. A couple of years later I did another story on the state-of-the-art, gourmet deli/cafe Ana had opened that everybody was raving about," she continues. "Other than having a hurried chat while grabbing an on-the-run espresso –with a wheat grass chaser! –we were just sort of mutual fans who could have been great friends, had both our lives not been so over-the top-busy."

It would be a couple of years more before the artist and the writer would again bump into each other, with time to chat. "I had lost track of Cathy because she had left The Weekly," remembers Ana. "And I had lost track of Ana after she left the cafe. We bumped into each other at the crafts store," says Cathy. "I think we both said, WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING THESE DAYS??? at the exact same moment! From there it was serendipity. Ana invited me to tea and to see her art. It was then that I knew that I had found the illustrator who could bring the vision I had of Monterey Jack to life." Ana Bondarenko-Machado's vivid illustrations in The Adventures of Monterey Jack radiate a joyful sense both of childhood and regional America, just as they capture the essence of the soul of hearth and home: the buzz of activity that centers around the kitchen and culminates with the kinship of the dining table.

Along with being an artist, Sergio's wife and seven-year old Lucca's mom, Ana is now a Certified Executive Chef and Instructor at the Florida Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida.