Nigella Bites: From Family Meals to Elegant Dinners: Easy, Delectable Recipes for Any Occasion


Nigella Lawson - 2001
    In Nigella Bites, Nigella shares her favorite recipes that are easy to make after a busy day at the office, perfect to linger over during a lazy weekend, or fun to make with kids on a rainy afternoon. All the recipes are delectable to read, dreamy to look at, and, of course, delicious to eat. Whether cooking Pasta E Fagioli or baking Orange Breakfast Muffins, Nigella knows just how to achieve maximum flavor with minimum effort.

Cook with Jamie


Jamie Oliver - 2006
    there’s information on the equipment that I think you should have in your kitchen, advice on how to recognize and cook loads of different cuts of meat, as well as on how to get the best value and quality when you’re out shopping.With Britain consuming more processed food than the rest of Europe put together, it’s a sad fact that most people just aren’t confident enough to cook any more. I'm hoping that with this new book, everyone will get stuck in and reclaim our fantastic cooking heritage!

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook


Yotam Ottolenghi - 2008
    Now available for the first time in an American edition and updated with US measurements throughout, this debut cookbook from the celebrated, bestselling authors of Jerusalem  and Plenty features 140 recipes culled from the popular Ottolenghi restaurants and inspired by the diverse culinary traditions of the Mediterranean. The recipes reflect the authors’ upbringings in Jerusalem yet also incorporate culinary traditions from California, Italy, and North Africa, among others. Featuring abundant produce and numerous fish and meat dishes, as well as Ottolenghi’s famed cakes and breads, Ottolenghi invites you into a world of inventive flavors and fresh, vibrant cooking.

Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again


Ina Garten - 2006
    She will be the first to tell you, though, that nothing beats a cozy dinner, surrounded by the people you love most, in the comfort that only your own home can provide. In Barefoot Contessa at Home, Ina shares her life in East Hampton, the recipes she loves, and her secrets to making guests feel welcome and comfortable.For Ina, it's friends and family-gathered around the dinner table or cooking with her in the kitchen-that really make her house feel like home. Here Ina offers the tried-and-true recipes that she makes over and over again because they're easy, they work, and they're universally loved. For a leisurely Sunday breakfast, she has Easy Cheese Danishes or Breakfast Fruit Crunch to serve with the perfect Spicy Bloody Mary. For lunch, she has classics with a twist, such as Tomato, Mozzarella, and Pesto Paninis and Old-Fashioned Potato Salad, which are simply delicious. Then there are Ina's homey dinners-from her own version of loin of pork stuffed with sauteed fennel to the exotic flavors of Eli's Asian Salmon. And since Ina knows no one ever forgets what you serve for dessert, she includes recipes for outrageously luscious sweets like Peach and Blueberry Crumble, Pumpkin Mousse Parfait, and Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing.Ina also lets readers in on her time-tested secrets for cooking and entertaining. Get the inside scoop on everything from what Ina considers when she's designing a kitchen to menu-planning basics and how to make a dinner party fun (here's a hint: it doesn't involve making complicated food!).Along with beautiful photographs of Ina's dishes, her home, and the East Hampton she loves, this book is filled with signature recipes that strike the perfect balance between elegance and casual comfort. With her most indispensable collection yet, Ina Garten proves beyond a shadow of doubt that there truly is no place like home.

Nigel Slater's Real Food


Nigel Slater - 1998
    Slater's unpretentious style means that he finds good things to make using mass-produced white bread and standard English confectionery, as well as the finest Italian loaves.

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.

The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh


Barbara Fairchild - 2006
    These are not the old-fashioned, lackluster choices found in most 30-minute cookbooks and cooking shows. The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook is all about ease, speed—and taste. There are 1,100 exciting, flavorful recipes, with dishes that take a fun, modern spin like Arugula Salad with Olives, Pancetta, and Parmesan; Roasted Garlic Beef Stew; Linguine with Winter Pesto; Shrimp with Ginger-Herb Butter; Grilled Steak with Fresh Garden Herbs; and Peach Pie with Berry Jam. All of the recipes are simple enough for weeknights, but with their focus on fresh ingredients and vibrant flavors, they're really special enough for weekends, too.Illustrated throughout with handsome line drawings and 32 pages of beautiful new color photographs, this collection of favorite Bon Appetit recipes is sure to quickly become the go-to resource for home cooks everywhere, whether they're beginners or simply looking to stay on top of their game. For everyone who's eager to make truly satisfying and delicious meals—without spending a lot of time in the kitchen—this is the cookbook to reach for every night of the week.

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 Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making


Alana Chernila - 2012
    Come on in, but be prepared—it might not be quite what you expect. There is flour on the counter, oats that overflowed onto the floor, chocolate-encrusted spoons in the sink. There is Joey, the husband, exhausted by the thirty-five preschoolers who were hanging on him all day, and he is stuffing granola into his mouth to ease his five o’clock starvation. There are two little girls trying to show me cartwheels in that miniscule space between the refrigerator and the counter where I really need to be.” In her debut cookbook, Alana Chernila inspires you to step inside your kitchen, take a look around, and change the way you relate to food. The Homemade Pantry was born of a tight budget, Alana’s love for sharing recipes with her farmers’ market customers, and a desire to enjoy a happy cooking and eating life with her young family. On a mission to kick their packaged-food habit, she learned that with a little determination, anything she could buy at the store could be made in her kitchen, and her homemade versions were more satisfying, easier to make than she expected, and tastier.              Here are her very approachable recipes for 101 everyday staples, organized by supermarket aisle—from crackers to cheese, pesto to sauerkraut, and mayonnaise to toaster pastries. The Homemade Pantry is a celebration of food made by hand—warm mozzarella that is stretched, thick lasagna noodles rolled from flour and egg, fresh tomato sauce that bubbles on the stove. Whether you are trying a recipe for butter, potato chips, spice mixes, or ketchup, you will discover the magic and thrill that comes with the homemade pantry.            Alana captures the humor and messiness of everyday family life, too. A true friend to the home cook, she shares her “tense moments” to help you get through your own. With stories offering patient, humble advice, tips for storing the homemade foods, and rich four-color photography throughout, The Homemade Pantry will quickly become the go-to source for how to make delicious staples in your home kitchen.

The River Cottage Fish Book


Nick Fisher - 2007
    The definitive guide to fish, fishing and fish cooking from the team behind the award-winning 'River Cottage Meat Book'.

Gordon Ramsay's Sunday Lunch: And Other Recipes from the F Word


Gordon Ramsay - 2006
    Gordon Ramsay presents a collection of 25 menus for Sunday lunch from around the world, each featuring a starter, main course and a pudding, plus an invaluable timetable, alternative recipe and menu suggestions.

The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread


Peter Reinhart - 2001
    Never one to be content with yesterday’s baking triumph, however, Peter continues to refine his recipes and techniques in his never-ending quest for extraordinary bread.In The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter shares his latest bread breakthroughs, arising from his study in several of France’s famed boulangeries and the always-enlightening time spent in the culinary academy kitchen with his students. Peer over Peter’s shoulder as he learns from Paris’s most esteemed bakers, like Lionel Poilâne and Phillippe Gosselin, whose pain à l’ancienne has revolutionized the art of baguette making. Then stand alongside his students in the kitchen as Peter teaches the classic twelve stages of building bread, his clear instructions accompanied by over 100 step-by-step photographs.You’ll put newfound knowledge into practice with 50 new master formulas for such classic breads as rustic ciabatta, hearty pain de campagne, old-school New York bagels, and the book’s Holy Grail–Peter’s version of the famed pain à l’ancienne. En route, Peter distills hard science, advanced techniques, and food history into a remarkably accessible and engaging resource that is as rich and multitextured as the loaves you’ll turn out. This is original food writing at its most captivating, teaching at its most inspired and inspiring–and the rewards are some of the best breads under the sun.

Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes


Rick Stein - 2007
    Rick Stein's culinary odyssey takes in both the islands and coast of this remarkable region.Travelling often by public ferry boat, and encountering extraodinary people along the way, Rick has sought out the very best of the region's food. This is a land where culinary trends are looked down upon. What matters is how good the lemons are this year and who is pressing the best olive oil. Rick's pick of more than 100 recipes includes Catalan Grilled Stuffed Mussels, Feta and Mint Pastries, Puglian Fava Bean Puree, Corsican Oysters with a Pernod and Tarragon Dressing, Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemon and Olives, Sicilian Orange Cake and Corfiot Rice Pudding.Fully illustrated with beautiful food photography by Earl Carter and landscape photography by Craig Easton, Rick Stein's Mediterranean is a fascinating journey into a rich and varied culinary heritage.

Cravings: Hungry for More


Chrissy Teigen - 2018
    It’s a life of pancakes that remind you of blueberry pie, eating onion dip with your glam squad, banana bread that breaks the internet, and a little something called Pad Thai Carbonara. After two years of parenthood, falling in love with different flavors, and relearning the healing power of comfort food, this book is like Chrissy’s new edible diary: recipes for quick-as-a-snap meals; recipes for lighter, brighter, healthier-ish living; and recipes that, well, are gonna put you to bed, holding your belly. And it will have you hungry for more.

Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes


Giada De Laurentiis - 2005
    And here, in her long-awaited first book, she does the same—helps you put a fabulous dinner on the table tonight, for friends or just for the kids, with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of flavor. She makes it all look easy, because it is. Everyday Italian is true to its title: the fresh, simple recipes are incredibly quick and accessible, and also utterly mouth-watering—perfect for everyday cooking. And the book is focused on the real-life considerations of what you actually have in your refrigerator and pantry (no mail-order ingredients here) and what you’re in the mood for—whether a simply sauced pasta or a hearty family-friendly roast, these great recipes cover every contingency. So, for example, you’ll find dishes that you can make solely from pantry ingredients, or those that transform lowly leftovers into exquisite entrées (including brilliant ideas for leftover pasta), and those that satisfy your yearning to have something sweet baking in the oven. There are 7 ways to make red sauce more interesting, 6 different preparations of the classic cutlet, 5 perfect pestos, 4 creative uses for prosciutto, 3 variations on basic polenta, 2 great steaks, and 1 sublime chocolate tiramisù—plus 100 other recipes that turn everyday ingredients into speedy but special dinners.What’s more, Everyday Italian is organized according to what type of food you want tonight—whether a soul-warming stew for Sunday supper, a quick sauté for a weeknight, or a baked pasta for potluck. These categories will help you figure out what to cook in an instant, with such choices as fresh-from-the-pantry appetizers, sauceless pastas, everyday roasts, and stuffed vegetables—whatever you’re in the mood for, you’ll be able to find a simple, delicious recipe for it here. That’s the beauty of Italian home cooking, and that’s what Giada De Laurentiis offers here—the essential recipes to make a great Italian dinner. Tonight.