About the Author

Barb Pratzel was a UW Journalism School graduate and science writer whose career took a decidedly sharp right turn into the world of bed and breakfasts, catering, and restaurants. Then, for 35 years she welcomed guests to her inn and customers to her cafe and bakery, all the while cultivating recipes that helped define a community. When the 2020 pandemic caused the widely beloved Manna Cafe to close, she turned once again to writing, grateful to bring her career full circle with this memoir/cookbook, the joyous result. Barb is a New York transplant who fell in love with Madison, Wisconsin at first sight, and lives here still. She has two children deeply rooted in the ethos of small business culture, and a husband (aka business partner/lifelong companion) whose love of a loaf of bread has amply sustained her, like manna.