Diversified Business Communications is a global magazine and tradeshow company, specializing in the seafood and foodservice industries. It publishes a wide array of trade magazines including Seafood Business; National Fisherman; Kosher Today; WorkBoat; and Organic Products.

After studying chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, James Peterson fell in love with food while picking grapes for a winemaker in the south of France. He studied in France at Le Cordon Bleu, and later worked at the then three-star restaurants Le Vivarois and Chez La Mere Blanc (now Georges Blanc). Peterson returned to the United States in 1979 and was partner and chef at Le Petit Robert in New York's Greenwich Village, and has also taught and developed curriculum at The French Culinary Institute in Manhattan and taught at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School. Peterson has translated six French books on pastry and baking, and is the author of Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making, the first edition of which was The James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year in 1992. He also wrote Splendid Soups, which was nominated for a James Beard Foundation award in 1994, and Fish and Shellfish, winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Julia Child Award for best book on a single subject. His latest book, Vegetables, appeared in the spring of 1998.