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flip it, and add a sprinkling of cheddar cheese to taste. When the cheese melts remove the tortilla. Repeat this process until six of the twelve tortillas have been used.
    Put the prepared tortillas on individual plates. Divide half the fish among the six tortillas and serve to your guests, who should add condiments to taste. Meanwhile, prepare the remaining tortillas, dividing the remaining fish among them, and serve.

An Unusual Recipe for Friendship

    I REMEMBER BEING incredibly anxious when John said he wanted me to meet his good friends Carl and Bunky Vernell. I knew that Bunky was still best friends with Ursula. Although Ursula left John for French star Jean-Paul Belmondo, many believed she would one day try and get him back.
    So what were the odds Bunky and I would become friends?
    The dreaded day finally came to have dinner at their house in Encino. Bunky answered the door and much to my surprise, as I looked into her eyes, I just loved her. To this day, she has remained my oldest and dearest friend.

    Meet my outrageous friend, Bunky.
    That first night, I also met Bunky’s family: her eldest, Michael, who was thirteen, the twins, Chris and Kelly, who were six, and her little girl Tracy, who was eight (and who, some forty years later, became my personal assistant while I toured with the play
Legends
).
    When it came time for dinner, Bunky brought out her meatloaf and my jaw dropped, along with John’s. It was shaped like a massive phallus, complete with meat “balls” and parsley.
    Bunky’s kids just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
“
Oh, Mom. Not meatloaf again!” Evidently, they had seen all this before.
    I soon learned that the reason Bunky was so “inventive” with her meatloaf was because she was bored, a state I have learned brings out the most outrageous in her. She had had a couple of glasses of wine, became inspired by the great sculptor Rodin, and began sculpting her masterpiece.
    We spent many fabulous evenings at Bunky’s home and I discovered that her husband Carl was also a great cook. Wanting to reciprocate, I decided to take cooking lessons for the first time.

My Béarnaise Fiasco or Meltdown Washout

    S EAN WAS AS excited about my becoming her new stepmother as I was. She was one of the best things to come out of my marriage to John, and certainly the most lasting.
    When John and I first got together, his two children were living in Europe with their mother, Pati, a French prima ballerina and the grand niece of Leo Tolstoy. When I read about her in movie magazines when I was a kid, I thought she sounded really impressive—and in actuality, she was. We ended up being great friends.
    Sean and I had already been pen pals, so when they got back to the states, we were both excited about meeting in person. Since that day, forty-plus years ago, we’ve remained very close friends and family. She even has her summerhouse next to mine in Washington State.
    Sean came into my life right at the time I began pursuing two of my greatest passions: cooking and spirituality. John had no interest in either of these, but he appreciated my spending time with his daughter, who luckily showed an interest in both. So Sean became my spiritual sidekick, kitchen helper, and new-recipe taster (not always the best job in those early days). She was also witness to my first cooking disaster.
    John had invited a group of his favorite friends for dinner. He would be cooking on his unique barbecue, which he built himself out of a single piece of volcanic rock. Another thing he handmade was our enormous tablecloth, which he created using longhair French cowhides. It was great for repelling spilled wine, but it was a bit strange washing my tablecloth with shampoo. But then, John was eccentric. John was also a red-meat-only man, so he would grill an entire uncut filet mignon, which he injected with red vermouth and herbs and coated with honey to keep in the juices.

    John and his prima wife, Pati.
    I painstakingly