The Best Cooks Are Home Cooks Accomplished food writers and editors Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs had a mission: to discover and celebrate the best home cooks in the country. Each week for fifty-two weeks, they ran recipe contests on their website, Food52.com, and the 140 winning recipes make up this book. They include: Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies Secret Ingredient Beef Stew Simple Summer Peach Cake Wishbone Roast Chicken with Herb Butter These recipes prove the truth that great home cooking doesn’t have to be complicated or precious to be memorable. This book captures the community spirit that has made Food52 a success. It features Amanda’s and Merrill’s thoughts and tips on every recipe, plus behind-the-scenes photos, reader comments, and portraits of the contributors—putting you right in the kitchen with America’s most talented cooks.

There are good recipes and there are great ones—and then, there are genius recipes. ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S FIFTEEN ESSENTIAL COOKBOOKS Genius recipes surprise us and make us rethink the way we cook. They might involve an unexpectedly simple technique, debunk a kitchen myth, or apply a familiar ingredient in a new way. They’re handed down by luminaries of the food world and become their legacies. And, once we’ve folded them into our repertoires, they make us feel pretty genius too. In this collection are 100 of the smartest and most remarkable ones. There isn’t yet a single cookbook where you can find Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter, Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread, and Nigella Lawson’s Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake—plus dozens more of the most talked about, just-crazy-enough-to-work recipes of our time. Until now. These are what Food52 Executive Editor Kristen Miglore calls genius recipes. Passed down from the cookbook authors, chefs, and bloggers who made them legendary, these foolproof recipes rethink cooking tropes, solve problems, get us talking, and make cooking more fun. Every week, Kristen features one such recipe and explains just what’s so brilliant about it in the James Beard Award-nominated Genius Recipes column on Food52. Here, in this book, she compiles 100 of the most essential ones—nearly half of which have never been featured in the column—with tips, riffs, mini-recipes, and stunning photographs from James Ransom, to create a cooking canon that will stand the test of time. Once you try Michael Ruhlman’s fried chicken or Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s hummus, you’ll never want to go back to other versions. But there’s also a surprising ginger juice you didn’t realize you were missing and will want to put on everything—and a way to cook white chocolate that (finally) exposes its hidden glory. Some of these recipes you’ll follow to a T, but others will be jumping-off points for you to experiment with and make your own. Either way, with Kristen at the helm, revealing and explaining the genius of each recipe, Genius Recipes is destined to become every home cook’s go-to resource for smart, memorable cooking—because no one cook could have taught us so much.

If you love to eat Thai food, but don’t know how to cook it, Kris Yenbamroong wants to solve your problems. His brash style of spicy, sharp Thai party food is created, in part, by stripping down traditional recipes to wring maximum flavor out of minimum hassle. Whether it’s a scorching hot crispy rice salad, lush coconut curries, or a wok-seared pad Thai, it’s all about demystifying the universe of Thai flavors to make them work in your life. Kris is the chef of Night + Market, and this cookbook is the story of his journey from the Thai-American restaurant classics he grew eating at his family’s restaurant, to the rural cooking of Northern Thailand he fell for traveling the countryside. But it’s also a story about how he came to question what authenticity really means, and how his passion for grilled meats, fried chicken, tacos, sushi, wine and good living morphed into an L.A. Thai restaurant with a style all its own.

100 of Food52’s simplest, most rule-breaking recipes yet to help beginners and other time-strapped cooks build confidence in the kitchen, from the New York Times bestselling Genius series. IACP AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Los Angeles Times, Epicurious There’s no better way to learn how to make great food than to stand at the elbow of a skilled cook, ask questions, and watch their every move. In Simply Genius, Food52 founding editor and Genius Recipes columnist Kristen Miglore gives you access to genius cooks like Samin Nosrat (Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken), Dr. Jessica B. Harris (Mayonnaise d’Avocat), Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi (Roasted Butternut Squash & Red Onion with Tahini & Za’atar), Gonzalo Guzmán (Frijoles Negros de la Olla), Leah Chase (Rice Pancakes with Ham & Tomato-Basil Sauce), Heidi Swanson (Farro & Olive Salad), Jacques Pépin (Fresh Tomato Sauce), and more, as they share their brilliant cooking tips through a collection of essential recipes. Miglore packs the book with helpful visuals (like brilliant doneness charts for everything from chicken to eggs to cake), illustrated step-by-step diagrams to show you smarter ways to prep (handling hot chiles, neatly separating eggs, tricking herbs into staying fresh), and myth-busting truths that make cooking so much more welcoming (no, you don't have to soak your beans before you cook them; no, you don't have to soften butter to make chocolate chip cookies). Primers on common woes and how to fix them tell you how to rescue your dinner when things go wrong, and how to make sure everything’s smoother next time. And once you get a recipe down, Miglore shares “3 More Ways” to use that new technique to make even more rewarding meals. More than 150 recipes and variations teach you building blocks, fit easily into your life, and prove that all of us can become genius cooks when we have the right teachers.

A smart, inspiring cookbook showing how to plan, shop, and cook for dinners (and lunches and desserts) all through the week. The secret? Cooking ahead. Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, founders of the online kitchen and home destination Food52, pull off home-cooked dinners with their families with stunning regularity. But they don't cook every night. Starting with flexible base dishes made on the weekend, Amanda and Merrill mix, match, and riff to create new dinners, lunches, and even desserts throughout the week. Blistered tomatoes are first served as a side, then become sauce for spaghetti with corn. Tuna, poached in olive oil on a Sunday, gets paired with braised peppers and romesco for a fiery dinner, with spicy mayo for a hearty sandwich, and with zucchini and couscous for a pack-and-go salad. Amanda and Merrill’s seasonal plans give you everything you need to set yourself up well for the week, with grocery lists and cooking timelines. They also share clever tips and tricks for more confident cooking, showing how elements can work across menus and seasons to fit your mood or market, and how to be scrappy with whatever’s left in the fridge. These building blocks form A New Way to Dinner, the key to smarter, happier cooking that leaves you with endless possibilities for the week ahead.

The Food52 Cookbook was named one of the Best Cookbooks of 2011. Now Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, the pioneers of the online community cookbook return with a second helping of delicious, seasonal recipes from the country’s most inventive home cooks.

“Filled with entertaining behind-the-scenes stories and technical tips . . . this cookbook will thrill meticulous bakers and Huckleberry's devotees” (Library Journal). “Everything in generosity” is the motto of Zoe Nathan, the big-hearted baker behind Santa Monica’s favorite neighborhood bakery and breakfast spot, Huckleberry Bakery & Café. This irresistible cookbook collects more than 115 of Huckleberry’s recipes and more than 150 color photographs, including how-to sequences for mastering basics such as flaky dough and lining a cake pan. Huckleberry’s recipes span from sweet (rustic cakes, muffins, and scones) to savory (hot cereals, biscuits, and quiche). True to the healthful spirit of Los Angeles, these recipes feature whole-grain flours, sesame and flax seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables, natural sugars, and gluten-free and vegan options—and they always lead with deliciousness. For bakers and all-day brunchers, Huckleberry will become the cookbook to reach for whenever the craving for big flavor strikes.