Editor Judith Jones has a knack for turning cooks into best-selling authors:

Salem resident Nina Simonds, a Chinese cookbook author, published “A Spoonful of Ginger” and “Spices of Life” with Jones; both won James Beard awards. ” ‘Spices,’ ” says Simonds, “was particularly brutal.” She calls Jones, whom she admires, “a bit of a terror.” They fight all the time, says Simonds, then admits that she does the fighting while Jones remains inscrutable. Once, after a particularly painful session, says Simonds, she decided not to call Jones for a while. Days later, when Simonds phoned her, it was as if the incident had never happened. “That was business,” said the editor. The two, and Simonds’s husband, Don Rose, traveled all over the Far East recently.