Cheap Thrills Cuisine offers tasty recipes in comic-strip form, whipped up by Chef Peppi -- the alter-ego of chef Bill Lombardo and cartoonist Thach Bui. Each recipe is easy enough for the novice cook, but delicious enough to please the more experienced chef.

Bill Lombardo, a native of Windsor, Ontario, is executive chef for St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto. He has studied at the Culinary Institute of America and has held positions with four major international hotel chains.

He also spent four years as executive chef at the Canadian National Ballet School in Toronto, initiating a health and nutrition program and providing meals for dance students. He received his chef's training at George Brown College in Canada and studied with master chefs Tony Roldan and Gunther Guglemeier.

The Canadian Escoffier Society awarded him a bronze medallion in 1982. In addition, he was awarded a silver medallion in 1983 by the Canadian Chefs de Cuisine.

Lombardo, who taught elementary school for two years before becoming a chef, traces his love for cooking to his Italian heritage. "Mom taught me how to make a Caesar Salad for my 10th birthday and with Dad, making soup was always a lesson," he says.

He grew up helping in the kitchen, watching his grandmother prepare classic dishes like risotto, cioppino and osso bucco.

"The cuisine of Tuscany is close to my heart — the abundance of garlic, white beans, Parmesan cheese and the extra-virgin olive oil — food for the gods."

He is a devoted fan of the Toronto Blue Jays and lives with his wife Joanne and their two daughters — both skilled food tasters — in Toronto.

Thach Bui, founder of Toronto's Artattack Studio, has produced editorial illustrations and artwork for newspapers and advertisers since 1977.

He has illustrated numerous books and drawn specialty comic strips for the Financial Post, The Toronto Star and Owl Magazine.

In addition to illustrating "Cheap Thrills Cuisine," Bui is the cartoonist behind "PC and Pixel," which features the story of PC Odata — divorced and downsized — who works as a free-lance consultant out of his home, and because of his increasing frustration with today's technology, often seeks help from his Net-surfing cat, Pixel.

Bui was born in Vietnam, where he grew up in an environment of political chaos, guerrilla terrorism and countless military coups. He found escape in drawing cartoons and collecting comics that came from Japan and France. In 1967, he came to the United States on a high-school student scholarship to spend his senior year with an American family.

The following year he moved to Canada, attended the New School of Art in Toronto and began his cartoon career in 1973. He has won several awards for editorial illustrations from the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators.

He currently resides in Toronto with his wife Cathy McNeil and their two sons.