[4] Circa 2015 Shepherd began writing the book and obtained representation from David Black Agency.

[2] He hired two chefs from the New York City restaurant Cosme, Estefania Brito and Josue A. Sanchez, to test the recipes.

[2] Shepherd got assistance from other Houston area restaurateurs, including Manabu "Chef Hori" Horiuchi.

[1] June Naylor of The Dallas Morning News states that the writing style uses "enthusiastic, accessible language".

[3] Repanich stated that the book pushed him "out of my comfort zone, but do a good job of guiding me to delicious food in the end.