Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes.For instance: The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night? Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie-the-Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others? The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini? How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party?and whom not to? John Irving's family recipe for meatballs; Balzac's love of coffee? The greatest dinner ever given at the White House? Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m.? How to cope with acts of God and man-made disasters in the kitchenSophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?"

    An underpaid, twenty-something executive assistant in New York City, she was struggling to make ends meet when she decided to embark on a Walden- esque retreat from the high-priced eateries that drained her wallet. Though she was living in the nation's culinary capital, she decided to swear off all restaurant food. "The Art of Eating In" chronicles the delectable results of her twenty-four-month experiment, with thirty original recipes included. What began as a way to save money left Erway with a new appreciation for the simple pleasure of sharing a meal with friends at home, the subtleties of home-cooked flavors, and whether her ingredients were ethically grown. She also explored the anti-restaurant underground of supper clubs and cook-offs, and immersed herself in an array of alternative eating lifestyles from freeganism and dumpster-diving to picking tasty greens on a wild edible tour in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Culminating in a binge that leaves her with a foodie hangover, "The Art of Eating In" is a journey to savor. Watch a Video

    In The Spice Necklace, award-winning food and travel writer Ann Vanderhoof embarks on a voyage of culinary discovery, as she follows her nose (and her tastebuds) into tiny kitchens and fragrant markets, through rainforest gardens and to family cookups on the beach, linking each food to its traditions, folklore and history.Meandering from island to island by sailboat, Vanderhoof takes readers along as she gathers nutmeg in Grenada, hunts crabs and freshwater crayfish in the mountains of Dominica, and obsesses about oregano-eating goats in the Dominican Republic. Along the way, she is befriended by a collection of unforgettable island characters who share with her their own delicious recipes, making this truly a book to savour.

    Monsoon Diary is populated with characters like Raju, the milkman who named his cows after his wives; the iron-man who daily set up shop in Narayan's front yard, picking up red-hot coals with his bare hands; her mercurial grandparents and inventive parents. Narayan illumines Indian customs while commenting on American culture from the vantage point of the sympathetic outsider. Her characters, like Narayan herself, have a thing or two to say about cooking and about life.In this creative and intimate work, Narayan's considerable vegetarian cooking talents are matched by stories as varied as Indian spices--at times pungent, mellow, piquant, and sweet. Tantalizing recipes for potato masala, dosa, and coconut chutney, among others, emerge from Narayan's absorbing tales about food and the solemn and quirky customs that surround it.

    Learn how to make a sourdough starter, basic breads, as well as other innovative baked goods from start to finish with Instagram star Bryan Ford's (@artisanbryan) inviting, nontraditional approach to home baking. With less emphasis on perfecting crumb structure or obsessive temperature monitoring, Ford focuses on the tips and techniques he's developed in his own practice, inspired by his Honduran roots and New Orleans upbringing, to ensure your success and a good return on your time and effort. Ford's recipes include step-by-step instructions and photographs of all of the mixing, shaping, and baking techniques you'll need to know, with special attention paid to developing flavor as well as your own instincts.New World Sourdough offers practical accessible techniques, and enticing, creative recipes you'll want to return to again and again, like:Pan de CocoPitaPizza doughChallah, Focaccia, and Pullman loavesStraightforward and unintimidating, New World Sourdough will get you started with your starter and then inspire you to keep experimenting and expanding your repertoire.

    Fickle and delicate, every loaf is unique. And there are a lot of pitfalls to be avoided. It's much more than a food: sourdough is a science. Who better than Dr James Morton, baking pedant and fermentation fanatic, to explain the basics for both the uninitiated, and more experienced bakers?   James talks the home baker through everything from starters, flours and hydration, to kneading, shaping, rising, scoring and baking, explaining how to achieve the perfect crust and crumb. With more than 40 sourdough recipes including basic loaves and rolls, baguettes, bagels and buns, clear step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting tips and explanations of what works and why, Super Sourdough is the new, accessible guidebook that bakers everywhere have been waiting for.

    Whether you’re dishing up a family favorite like spaghetti and meatballs or pulling out all the stops with a succulent tenderloin steak topped with spicy crab salad, Tyler Florence believes every meal can–and should–be the ultimate dining experience. At last, in Tyler’s Ultimate, he shows us how to get these spectacular results in much less time. Tyler believes the ultimate meal brings together good food, good friends, and good times–with Tyler’s Ultimate as your guide you can elevate any gathering to a cause for celebration and every family meal to an occasion worth savoring. In his travels around the world for his Food Network show, he’s sampled countless versions of classic dishes, taking an ideal technique from one, a perfect ingredient from another. Here he gives you the best of the best. Make no mistake: Tyler’s approach here may be simplified and the ingredients list streamlined, but your palate will never feel compromised. These recipes are packed with zesty flavors, yet easy to pull together and always straightforward enough for even novice cooks. Because Tyler believes that the little details separate a good meal from a “wow!” experience, his recipes feature bright, exciting flavors that sing on the tongue yet don’t require fancy equipment or exotic ingredients. Tyler has collected all his most trusted and best-loved recipes for the ultimate collection of go-to meals, including can’t-miss versions of the dishes we all crave most: the ultimate burger, French onion soup, beef stew, macaroni and cheese, and chocolate mousse, plus exciting new discoveries that will find a permanent home in your cooking repertoire. Filled with recipes for sensational, all-American food, Tyler’s Ultimate is the all-around, everyday great cookbook his fans have been waiting for.

    But, if it's in you, if it's in your blood, kitchens are your happy place and food is as good for your soul as it is for feeding any appetite. Every nick of the knife, every burn and every ache and pain can go almost unnoticed and ultimately is more than worth it. At fifty, I could be better looking but I couldn't be more fulfilled."As her fiftieth birthday approached, the woman who taught America how to get dinner on the table, fast, started thinking, not just about what to make for dinner, but how her passion for food and feeding people developed over a lifetime. Where did it come from? How did it grow? Where will it take her next?Now, Rachael Ray reveals how her mother and Italian grandfather instilled in her a strong work ethic, problem solving skills, and overall love of cooking, and how her time as a dish washer and soda fountain girl shaped her work philosophy; why muggings at gunpoint (two!) eventually led to her career in television, and how competing (and winning) on Iron Chef turned out to be one of the hardest days of her life; plus tales of the friends she's made along the way, like Oprah, Michelle Obama, Jacques Pépin, and many others. Peppered throughout is her kitchen and life wisdom, along with her philosophy on how we can better serve the world and each other.The accompanying recipes range from all-time favorite recipes and meals to unexpected dishes like French cuisine, her endeavors into baking, and some of her husband John's tasty cocktails. They include: Bavette with Green Peppercorn Sauce Verte, Smoked Oysters with Lemon-Horseradish Mignonette, Mushroom and Chard Crostata, Brown Butter Balsamic Ravioli, Beet Arancini, Nduja Deviled Eggs, Stone Fruit Galette, Negroni Freeze, and a serious Porchetta. Plus favorite recipes for your pets!Complete with gorgeous food shots, personal collection photos, and Rachael's own hand-drawn illustrations, this is a revealing and intimate glimpse into Rachael's world and her every day inspiration.

    But what followed was no fairy tale: Chef hours are tough on a relationship. Surrounded by foodies yet unable to make a cup of tea, she was displaced and discouraged. Motivated at first by self-preservation rather than culinary passion, Shelasky embarked on a journey to master the kitchen, and she created the blog Apron Anxiety (ApronAnxiety.com) to share her stories.This is a memoir (with recipes) about learning to cook, the ups and downs of love, and entering the world of food full throttle. Readers will delight in her infectious voice as she dishes on everything from the sexy chef scene to the unexpected inner calm of tying on an apron.

    Now, in her debut cookbook, she gives readers the dishes that helped her reach her goals and maintain her new size. In 80 recipes, she shows how she eats: mostly healthy meals that are packed with flavor, like Lemon Roasted Chicken with Moroccan Couscous and Butternut Squash Salad with Kale and Pomegranate, and then the “sometimes” foods, the indulgences such as Peanut Butter Mousse Pie with Marshmallow Whipped Cream, because life just needs dessert. With 75 photographs and Andie’s beautiful storytelling, Eating in the Middle is the perfect cookbook for anyone looking to find freedom from cravings while still loving and enjoying every meal to the fullest.

    Hailed by Time magazine as "a minor masterpiece" when it first appeared in 1984, On Food and Cooking is the bible to which food lovers and professional chefs worldwide turn for an understanding of where our foods come from, what exactly they're made of, and how cooking transforms them into something new and delicious. Now, for its twentieth anniversary, Harold McGee has prepared a new, fully revised and updated edition of On Food and Cooking. He has rewritten the text almost completely, expanded it by two-thirds, and commissioned more than 100 new illustrations. As compulsively readable and engaging as ever, the new On Food and Cooking provides countless eye-opening insights into food, its preparation, and its enjoyment.On Food and Cooking pioneered the translation of technical food science into cook-friendly kitchen science and helped give birth to the inventive culinary movement known as "molecular gastronomy." Though other books have now been written about kitchen science, On Food and Cooking remains unmatched in the accuracy, clarity, and thoroughness of its explanations, and the intriguing way in which it blends science with the historical evolution of foods and cooking techniques.Among the major themes addressed throughout this new edition are:Traditional and modern methods of food production and their influences on food qualityThe great diversity of methods by which people in different places and times have prepared the same ingredientsTips for selecting the best ingredients and preparing them successfullyThe particular substances that give foods their flavors and that give us pleasureOur evolving knowledge of the health benefits and risks of foodsOn Food and Cooking is an invaluable and monumental compendium of basic information about ingredients, cooking methods, and the pleasures of eating. It will delight and fascinate anyone who has ever cooked, savored, or wondered about food.

    Bringing the River Cottage philosophy to the whole family, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall describes the joys of cooking food together, including recipes for how to make butter from a jar of cream and how to make your own sausages.

    This is the first book to examine the creative process of culinary composition as it explores the intersection of food, imagination, and taste. Through interviews with more than 30 of America's leading chefsa including Rick Bayless, Daniel Boulud, Gray Kunz, Jean-Louis Palladin, Jeremiah Tower, and Alice Watersa the authors reveal what defines culinary artists, how and where they find their inspiration, and how they translate that vision to the plate. Through recipes and reminiscences, chefs discuss how they select and pair ingredients, and how flavors are combined into dishes, dishes into menus, and menus into bodies of work that eventually comprise their cuisines.

    With appealing vulnerability, he shows cooks of all levels how to become more confident and casual in the kitchen. The verve and naturalness of his approach earned raves from Food & Wine and Bon Appétit to GQ and the New York Times, which noted his dishes prove that “sometimes simple is anything but simplistic.” Some of the recipes in this book are weeknight healthyish meals, while others are perfect for off-the-cuff entertaining. Visual stunners, they’re often composed of fewer than five ingredients. Whether Bastardized Easy Ramen; Malaysian Chili Shrimp; Roasted Carrots with Carrot-Top Pesto; or Salty Lemon Squares, all are visual stunners and can be carried off with panache, even by beginners.

    ranging from bread puddings, biscotti, and custards, to cheesecakes and seasonal fruit pies.