Mr. Sando's farm, Rancho Gordo, supplies Mr. Keller, Daniel Boulud and many of the other most discriminating chefs.

WSJ: A Cassoulet Worth Fighting Over

When Sando begins to prefer the more daring Loonie, the boys' friendship founders.

ECONOMIST: New fiction 1

Soon the two fall in thrall to an older surfer, Sando, who calls the boys to ever-riskier battles with water.

ECONOMIST: New fiction 1

Vincent Marush Sando, who coordinates a domestic-cotton promotion campaign in Mozambique's capital Maputo, says Africa should place stiff import duties on used clothes from the West.

NPR: U.S., European Subsidies Undercut African Farmers

But over the last decade or so, that's changed, thanks to the efforts of people like Mr. Roberts and Steve Sando, whose company, Rancho Gordo, specializes in New World beans and grains.

WSJ: Hominy Is Back on the Menu

Pikelet is drawn to a danger greater than 20-footers: the dubious charms of Sando's wife, Eva, a former daredevil skier embittered by a knee injury that has terminated her own exhilaration on the slopes.

ECONOMIST: New fiction 1