The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook


Deb Perelman - 2012
    It’s as simple as that. She isn’t a chef or a restaurant owner—she’s never even waitressed. Cooking in her tiny Manhattan kitchen was, at least at first, for special occasions—and, too often, an unnecessarily daunting venture. Deb found herself overwhelmed by the number of recipes available to her. Have you ever searched for the perfect birthday cake on Google? You’ll get more than three million results. How do you choose? Where do you start? What if you pick a recipe that’s downright bad?So Deb founded her award-winning blog, smittenkitchen.com, on the premise that cooking should be a pleasure, and that the results of your labor can—and should be—delicious...every time. Deb is a firm believer that there are no bad cooks, just bad recipes. She has dedicated herself to finding the best of the best and adapting them for the everyday cook—the ones with little time to spare, little money to burn on unpronounceable ingredients, and little help in the kitchen. And now, with the same warmth, candor, and can-do spirit her blog is known for, Deb presents her first cookbook—more than 100 new recipes, plus a few favorites from her site, all gorgeously illustrated with hundreds of Deb’s beautiful color photographs.The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is all about approachable, uncompromised home cooking: stepped-up comfort foods, stewy dishes for windy winter afternoons, an apple cake that will answer all questions: “What should my new signature dessert be?” “What is always welcome at a potluck?” “What did Deb consume almost single-handedly a week after having a baby?” These are the recipes you bookmark and use so often they become your own; recipes you slip to a friend who wants to impress her new in-laws; and recipes with simple ingredients that yield amazing results in a minimum amount of time. Deb tells you how to host a brunch and still sleep in—plus what to make for it!—and the essential items you need for your own kitchen. From salads and slaws that make perfect side dishes (or a full meal) to savory tarts and pizzas; from Mushroom Bourguignon to Pancetta, White Bean and Swiss Chard Pot Pies; from Buttered Popcorn Cookies to Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake, Deb knows just the thing for a Tuesday night, or your most special occasion.

The Lemonade Cookbook: Southern California Comfort Food from L.A.'s Favorite Modern Cafeteria


Alan Jackson - 2013
    Like Los Angeles, Lemonade's cuisine is carefully blended with variety. L.A. is agents and movie grips, surfers and yoga moms, students and celebrities, and a wide mix of different culinary traditions. At Lemonade the marketplace salads, unique sandwiches, and slow-simmered stews taste as though every culture stirred a bit into the pot—for example, the skirt steak with grilled onions and piquillo peppers with its smoky depth, pairs perfectly with the snappy salad of Chinese long beans, plums, and scallion vinaigrette.A comfortable place where locals and visitors enjoy a rotating daily spread of deliciousness, the recipes, more than 120 in all, stress simple cooking preparation with a global taste, and are a perfect fit for today's on-the-go lifestyles and perceptive palates. And, of course, it wouldn't be L.A. without the amazing desserts—from banana mascarpone layer cake to caramel fleur de sel macaroons to peanut butter milk chocolate cookies, there are recipes for treats galore, plus ten different recipes for delicious flavors of lemonade. The Lemonade Cookbook: Southern California Comfort Food from L.A.'s Favorite Modern Cafeteria speaks to all cooks who want to make sophisticated highly-urban "comfort food" with ease.

Eat This Book: Cooking with Global Fresh Flavors


Tyler Florence - 2004
    In Eat This Book, Tyler draws inspiration from kitchens around the world to enliven America’s favorite foods in more than 150 new real kitchen recipes for everyday occasions. Now you can wake up tired weeknight chicken with the zing of North African spices. Turn Sunday’s same old spaghetti dinner into an authentic Italian abbondanza with Pappardelle Bolognese and Veal Saltimbocca alla Romana. Hit a home run on game day with Fresh Tortilla Chips, Guacamole, and Farmstand Salsa. Each recipe zeroes in on the bright notes of fresh, global fare and a handful of readily available ingredients that engage the senses and spark the palate, and all are as easy to prepare as they are flavorful.From the simple pleasures of midnight fridge raids to the exotic and sophisticated, Eat This Book satisfies an array of hunger pangs in chapters that truly speak to the way we eat today: Eating introduces pantry basics with a twist, like Lemon-Caper Mayonnaise and Ginger-Soy Vinaigrette; Devouring presents snacks and cocktail bites such as Toasted Almonds in Chile Oil and Sautéed Feta Cheese;Noshing offers crowd-pleasing fare for impromptu gatherings like Cold Sesame Noodles and Grilled Pizza with Mozzarella di Bufala; Consuming lays out easy dishes for weeknight suppers, including Roasted Chicken Stuffed with Lemon and Herbs and Pan-Seared Tuna with Avocado; Tasting harvests ideas from the summer garden such as Spanish Gazpacho and Roasted Corn with Parmesan and Cayenne; Savoring serves up hot pots for cold nights, like Braised Brisket and Buttery Turnips; and Licking the plate clean showcases irresistible desserts, including Peach and Blueberry Crostata and Chocolate Tart.Packed with the excitement of a culinary wanderlust fulfilled and all the comforts of coming home again, Eat This Book proves there’s really no reason to eat out when the food from your own kitchen can be so delicious.

How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food


Mark Bittman - 1998
    Just as important, How to Cook Everything takes a relaxed, straightforward approach to cooking, so you can enjoy yourself in the kitchen and still achieve outstanding results.

The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science


J. Kenji López-Alt - 2015
    Kenji López-Alt has pondered all these questions and more. In The Food Lab, Kenji focuses on the science behind beloved American dishes, delving into the interactions between heat, energy, and molecules that create great food. Kenji shows that often, conventional methods don’t work that well, and home cooks can achieve far better results using new—but simple—techniques. In hundreds of easy-to-make recipes with over 1,000 full-color images, you will find out how to make foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to transform one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, how to make the crispiest, creamiest potato casserole ever conceived, and much more.

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace


Tamar Adler - 2011
    F. K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf— written in 1942 during wartime shortages—An Everlasting Meal shows that cooking is the path to better eating. Through the insightful essays in An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler issues a rallying cry to home cooks. In chapters about boiling water, cooking eggs and beans, and summoning respectable meals from empty cupboards, Tamar weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on instinctive cooking. Tamar shows how to make the most of everything you buy, demonstrating what the world’s great chefs know: that great meals rely on the bones and peels and ends of meals before them. She explains how to smarten up simple food and gives advice for fixing dishes gone awry. She recommends turning to neglected onions, celery, and potatoes for inexpensive meals that taste full of fresh vegetables, and cooking meat and fish resourcefully. By wresting cooking from doctrine and doldrums, Tamar encourages readers to begin from wherever they are, with whatever they have. An Everlasting Meal is elegant testimony to the value of cooking and an empowering, indispensable tool for eaters today.

Momofuku Milk Bar


Christina Tosi - 2011
    It all started one day when Momofuku founder David Chang asked Christina to make a dessert for dinner that night. Just like that, the pastry program at Momofuku began, and Christina’s playful desserts helped the restaurants earn praise from the New York Times and the Michelin Guide and led to the opening of Milk Bar, which now draws fans from around the country and the world.With all the recipes for the bakery’s most beloved desserts—along with ones for savory baked goods that take a page from Chang’s Asian-flavored cuisine, such as Kimchi Croissants with Blue Cheese—and 100 color photographs, Momofuku Milk Bar makes baking irresistible off-beat treats at home both foolproof and fun.

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook


America's Test Kitchen - 2005
    This instant classic belongs on the shelf of every home cook. Publisher's Weekly called it "a foolproof, go-to resource for everyday cooking." The new edition is bound on five rings, shrink-wrapped, and durably packaged.

Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook


Isa Chandra Moskowitz - 2007
    You'll find 25 new dishes and updates throughout for more than 250 recipes (everything from basics to desserts), stunning color photos, and tips for making your kitchen a vegan paradise. All the recipes in Veganomicon have been thoroughly kitchen-tested to ensure user-friendliness and amazing results. Veganomicon also includes meals for all occasions and soy-free, gluten-free, and low-fat options, plus quick recipes that make dinner a snap.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking


Julia Child - 1961
    Featuring 524 delicious recipes, in its pages home cooks will find something for everyone, from seasoned experts to beginners who love good food and long to reproduce the savory delights of French cuisine, from historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. Here Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle break down the classic foods of France into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of dishes. Throughout, the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations--bound to increase anyone's culinary repertoire. With over 100 instructive illustrations to guide readers every step of the way, Mastering the Art of French Cooking deserves a place of honor in every kitchen in America.

Giada's Family Dinners


Giada De Laurentiis - 2006
    Now, America’s favorite Italian cook is back with a new batch of simple, delicious recipes geared toward family meals—Italian style. These unpretentious and delicious meals are at the center of some of Giada’s warmest memories of sitting around the table with her family, passing bowls of wonderful food, and laughing over old times. Recipes for soups like Escarole and Bean and hearty sandwiches such as the classic Italian Muffuletta make casual, easy suppers, while one-pot dinners like Giada’s Chicken Vesuvio and Veal Stew with Cipollini Onions are just as simple but elegant enough for company. You’ll also find recipes for holiday favorites you’ll be tempted to make all year round, including Easter Pie, Turkey and Ciabatta Stuffing with Chestnuts and Pancetta, and Panettone Bread Pudding with Amaretto Sauce.Giada’s Family Dinners celebrates the fun of family meals with photographs of Giada’s real-life family and friends as well as the wonderful dishes she shares with them in her kitchen. Suggested menus help you put together a family-style meal for any occasion, from informal to festive. The heart of Italian cooking is the home, and Giada’s Family Dinners—full of fantastic recipes that require a minimum of fuss to prepare—invites you to treat everyone like a member of the family.Nothing is more important than family. Bring yours to the table with Giada’s unpretentious, authentic, down-home Italian cooking!• SOUPS AND SANDWICHES• ITALIAN SALADS AND SIDES• EVERYDAY FAMILY ENTREES• THE ITALIAN GRILL• FAMILY-STYLE PASTA• FAMILY-STYLE GET-TOGETHERS• ITALIAN FAMILY FEASTS• FAMILY-STYLE DESSERTS

EveryDayCook


Alton Brown - 2016
    It’s my first in a few years because I’ve been a little busy with TV stuff and interwebs stuff and live stage show stuff. Sure, I’ve been cooking, but it’s been mostly to feed myself and people in my immediate vicinity—which is really what a cook is supposed to do, right? Well, one day I was sitting around trying to organize my recipes, and I realized that I should put them into a personal collection. One thing led to another, and here’s EveryDayCook. There’s still plenty of science and hopefully some humor in here (my agent says that’s my “wheelhouse”), but unlike in my other books, a lot of attention went into the photos, which were all taken on my iPhone (take that, Instagram) and are suitable for framing. As for the recipes, which are arranged by time of day, they’re pretty darned tasty. Highlights include:  • Morning: Buttermilk Lassi, Overnight Coconut Oats, Nitrous Pancakes • Coffee Break: Cold Brew Coffee, Lacquered Bacon, Seedy Date Bars• Noon: Smoky the Meat Loaf, Grilled Cheese Grilled Sandwich, “EnchiLasagna” or “Lasagnalada”• Afternoon: Green Grape Cobbler, Crispy Chickpeas, Savory Greek Yogurt Dip• Evening: Bad Day Bitter Martini, Mussels-O-Miso, Garam Masalmon Steaks• Anytime: The General’s Fried Chicken, Roasted Chile Salsa, Peach Punch Pops• Later: Cider House Fondue, Open Sesame Noodles, Chocapocalypse Cookie So let’s review: 101 recipes with mouthwatering photos, a plethora of useful insights on methods, tools, and ingredients all written by an “award-winning and influential educator and tastemaker.” That last part is from the PR office. Real people don’t talk like that.

The New Best Recipe


Cook's Illustrated - 1995
    Fully-updated and double the size of the original, this new edition boasts 22 chapters covering 1,000 foolproof recipes. 40% new recipes pack this 1,000-page, one-stop source for the best-tested recipes in America.

Nigella Express: Good Food, Fast


Nigella Lawson - 2007
    Nigella's ratings are through the roof, and she was recently featured in In Style. The cookbook is all of the delicious foods Nigella is known for but the emphasis is on fast, really fast! This is for everyone who loves good food, but just doesn't have time or patience at the end of the day for a long, drawn-out cooking session. More than 130 recipes!

The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America


Michael Ruhlman - 1997
    His vivid and energetic record of that experience, The Making of a Chef, takes us to the heart of this food-knowledge mecca. Here we meet a coterie of talented chefs, an astonishing and driven breed. Ruhlman learns fundamental skills and information about the behavior of food that make cooking anything possible. Ultimately, he propels himself and his readers through a score of kitchens and classrooms, from Asian and American regional cuisines to lunch cookery and even table waiting, in search of the elusive, unnameable elements of great cooking.