Neal Bertrand was born and raised in Opelousas, Louisiana, in the heart of Cajun Country. He is by no means a professional cook. He has had no culinary training. He had only cooked one meal, a jambalaya, in his rice cooker before starting this project. But by getting in the kitchen and experimenting for several months this project has come to life.Cajun and Cooking are synonymous to those familiar with the culture, so it's no coincidence that Neal started his company, Cypress Cove Publishing, putting out cookbooks. It's also no coincidence that his moniker since 2005 has been The Cookbook Dude. He is quick to recall that family holidays always revolved around food, no matter where he was.

Whether it was barbecued steak from the cattle his family raised, or gumbo, Neal grew up with food and fun.The cookbooks he has written and published have sold over 100,000 copies, and they are available both as print and e-book on Amazon, BN.com and through his website at www.CypressCovePublishing.comPrior to his latest project, Neal was involved in charting his genealogy. He joined two genealogy societies and charted his ancestry back ten generations. Genealogy is one of Neal's favorite pastimes, as is starting a major creative project and watching it come to life, which he has done admirably with several books which can be seen at his website.In 2009, Neal and his son Jeremy began scanning and photo-editing the war pictures of Neal's dad.

Neither had ever seen the backs of the photos until then because they had been attached to the pages of three photo albums kept in a cedar chest in the hallway of Neal's childhood home. Once he figured out the timeline, Neal was able to organize them by country, month, and year. After researching battalion diary entries, Neal was able to trace his father's steps from boot camp to war and back home and he began compiling his findings into Dad's War Photos: Adventures in the South Pacific.Visit our website at DadsWarPhotos.com.