Culinary McCook: New Book Reviews

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Einkorn: Recipes For Nature's Original Wheat

New Book Review

Einkorn: Recipes for Nature's Original Wheat
By Carla Bartolucci

Discover the ancient grain with tremendous flavor that is a true gift for many who suffer from gluten sensitivity. The only wheat in existence that has never been hybridized or modified, einkorn grew thousands of years ago in the Fertile Crescent. Carla Bartolucci came across it when searching for an alternative grain for her daughter Giulia, who was diagnosed with gluten sensitivity in 2008. Einkorn has remained unaltered for thousands of years, which allows many, including Giulia—who suffered from mood swings, asthma, and digestive problems—to eat wheat without symptoms. Amazed by her daughter’s health transformation, Carla became a champion of this little-known, nutrient-packed grain. Einkorn shares 100 delicious recipes for working with the grain and its flour in a wide variety of flavorful dishes, such as Yogurt Blueberry Muffins, Spinach Lasagna Bolognese, Neapolitan Pizza Margherita, and Soft & Chewy Ginger Cookies—as well as sourdough and yeasted breads like Classic French Boule and buttery Sweet Potato Rolls.

This book also explores einkorn’s history, unique genetics, and superior nutrient content, while sharing Carla’s tips for using it to its full baking and cooking potential.

With eighty-five beautiful color photographs, Einkorn will introduce home cooks to a delicious ancient grain that can transform the way they eat for the better by adding more nutrition and flavor to the foods they love. More

Vegan Cooking For Carnivores

New Book Review

Vegan Cooking for Carnivores: Over 125 Recipes So Tasty You Won't Miss the Meat, by Roberto Martin with photography by Quentin Bacon and with an afterword by Ellen Degeneres and a foreward by Portia deRossi. Ellen DeGeneres' personal chef, Roberto Martin, shares over 125 delicious vegan recipes he's created for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi that he hopes will make healthy vegan cooking accessible and easy for everyone. Portia de Rossi explains in her foreword, "Roberto taught me that the key to making good food vegan is substitution...you can enjoy all your favorite foods and never feel deprived."

Some of the standouts Martin, a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef, has developed for Ellen and Portia include: Banana and Oatmeal Pancakes, Avocado Reuben, Red Beans and Rice, "Chick'n" Pot Pie, and Chocolate Cheesecake. Featuring mouthwatering photographs by award-winning food photographer, Quentin Bacon, this cookbook will appeal to die-hard carnivores and vegetarians alike.

Roberto Martin grew up in a Mexican-American family of 15. While in college he worked in a restaurant, fell in love with cooking and attended the Culinary Institute of America. He became a personal chef to celebrities, and has focussed on nutrition and health. Now he cooks exclusively vegan meals for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. He appears frequently on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and on the show's website........Learn more.

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Les Petits Macarons: Colorful French Confections to Make at Home

New Book Review

Les Petits Macarons: Colorful French Confections to Make at Home, by Kathryn Gordon and Anne E. McBride. Macarons, the stuff of bakers’ candy-coated dreams, have taken the world by storm and are demystified here for the home baker, With dozens of flavor combinations, recipes are structured with three basic shell methods—French, Swiss, and Italian—plus one never-before-seen Easiest French Macaron Method. Pick one that works for you, and go on to create French-inspired pastry magic with nothing more than a mixer, an oven, and a piping bag.

Try shells flavored with pistachio, blackberry, coconut, and red velvet, filled with the likes of sesame buttercream, strawberry guava pâte de fruit, crunchy dark chocolate ganache, and lemon curd. Or go savory with shells like saffron, parsley, and ancho chile paired with fillings like hummus, foie gras with black currant, and duck confit with port and fig. The options for customization are endless, and the careful, detailed instruction is like a private baking class in your very own kitchen! All recipes have been tested by students and teachers alike and are guaranteed to bring the flavors of France right to your door.

Kathryn Gordon is a professional baking instructor and chef with sold-out classes at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. She lives in New Jersey. Anne E. McBride is the co-author of three books and the director of the Experimental Cuisine Collective at New York University. She lives in New Jersey.

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40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering

New Book Review

40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering, by Alice Waters. Chez Panisse opened its doors in 1971. Founded by Alice Waters, the restaurant is rooted in her conviction that the best-tasting food is organic, locally grown, and harvested in ecologically sound ways by people who are taking care of the land for future generations. The quest for such ingredients has always determined the restaurant’s cuisine, and, over the course of forty years, Chez Panisse has helped create a community of local farmers and ranchers whose dedication to sustainable agriculture assures the restaurant a steady supply of fresh and pure ingredients.

In Forty Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering, Alice takes readers on her journey from the humble and visionary beginnings of the restaurant, through its rise and the acclaim, to the Café and the influential Chez Panisse Foundation. Organized by decade, the book includes a wealth of archival material and photographs—menus; invitations; pictures of Alice at the restaurant and around the world, with those who have passed through her life—and interviews from public figures and cooks who have been inspired by or mentored at the restaurant.

This tribute to the delicious food revolution that began with Alice Waters and Chez Panisse is an important work for anyone who cares about food, sustainability, and the powerful legacy that Alice has built.

ALICE WATERS’s influence on American cooking is unrivaled. She opened Chez Panisse (named Best Restaurant in America by Gourmet) in 1971, Chez Panisse Café in 1980, and Café Fanny in 1984. She founded her career on creating dishes using fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients long before sustainability was a household term. Among her many awards, Alice has received the James Beard Best Chef in America, Humanitarian, and Lifetime Achievement awards, and most recently the French Légion d’Honneur. In 1996, she created the Chez Panisse Foundation to fund the Edible Schoolyard, a model of edible education in the public school system. She is the author of eight cookbooks, most recently In the Green Kitchen and The Art of Simple Food. For more information about Alice and Chez Panisse, please visit ChezPanisse.com and ChezPanisseFoundation.org.

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Perfect Pies: The Best Sweet and Savory Recipes from America's Pie-Baking Champion

New Book Review

Perfect Pies: The Best Sweet and Savory Recipes from America's Pie-Baking Champion, by Michele Stuart. The smell of a pie baking in the kitchen immediately conjures up feelings of comfort, nostalgia, and love. Michele Stuart vividly remembers standing at her grandmother’s apron hem as a child, as she fine-tuned (and improved!) family recipes that had been passed down for generations. Eventually, Stuart’s lifelong passion for pie-making inspired her to open what would become the world-famous shop Michele’s Pies.

You don’t have to travel to Michele’s Pies in Norwalk and Westport, Connecticut, though, to taste Stuart’s mouthwatering creations. Perfect Pies shares nearly eighty delicious recipes, many of them National Pie Championships winners: There are desserts bursting with fruit (Country Apple Pie, Blueberry-Blackberry Pie), crunchy with nuts (Chocolate-Pecan-Bourbon Pie, Maple Walnut Pie), cream-filled delights (Coconut Custard Pie, Lemon Chiffon Pie), and pies perfect for a party (Ultimate Banana Split Pie, Candyland Pie). And let’s not forget Stuart’s sensational savory creations, from Lobster Pot Pie to Quiche Lorraine to Italian Wheat Pie. Stuart also passes along easy recipes for Hot Fudge Sauce, Raspberry Jam, and Whipped Cream to top it all off.

Stuart’s secret, she says, is that her pies are “made by hand with love,” but she doesn’t neglect to advise you on the basic kitchen tools you’ll need as she reveals essential tips and techniques, from how to roll out dough to the best way to make light and flaky crust. And of course she stresses the use of fresh, seasonal fruits and other wholesome ingredients. “The best pies are the ones that keep it simple,” Stuart notes. So whether you’re a pie novice, a weekend baker, or a seasoned pastry chef, Perfect Pies will help make everything you bake worthy of a blue ribbon.

Michele Stuart is the owner and pastry chef of Michele’s Pies in Norwalk and Westport, Connecticut. Her pies have earned her twenty-six National Pie Championships Awards—mostly first place—in a range of categories. Stuart and her pies have been featured in The New York Times, and on Good Morning America and the Food Network, among other media outlets.

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The Kimchi Chronicles: Korean Cooking for an American Kitchen

New Book Review

The Kimchi Chronicles: Korean Cooking for an American Kitchen, by Marja and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Long a favorite of in-the-know foodies, Korean cuisine is poised to become the next big food trend, with dishes like bibimbap and kimchi popping up on menus nationwide. In a PBS series Marja Vongerichten and three-star Michelin chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten give viewers an insider’s look at Korea as they travel the country and experience its authentic flavors and cultural traditions. As the show’s companion cookbook, The Kimchi Chronicles will include a recipe for every dish featured, explaining how they can be easily duplicated in an American kitchen. Chef Vongerichten will also offer original dishes with a lighter, modern flair, showing how the flavors of the Korean table can be readily integrated into any meal.

For lovers of Korean food, those eager to experiment in search of an accessible introduction to this intriguing cuisine, and readers who just want a little taste of culinary and cultural exploration outside the Western Hemisphere, The Kimchi Chronicles is sure to provide plenty of inspiration, information, and entertainment.

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Marja Vongerichten is a Korean-born former actress and model. At home with her husband, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, she cooks authentic, Korean dishes. She and Jean-Georges live in New York City with their daughter Chloe.

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Modern Hospitality: Simple Recipes with Southern Charm

New Book Review

Modern Hospitality: Simple Recipes with Southern Charm, by Whitney Miller, with a foreward by Gordon Ramsey. Known by TV viewers as the Mississippi belle whose demure demeanor belied nerves of steel and true culinary skill, America watched Whitney Miller crush the competition and become the first winner of MasterChef Season 1. Now Whitney’s long-awaited dream of writing her first cookbook has come true as she shares her favorite recipes and entertaining secrets in Modern Hospitality.

As a little girl in small-town Missisippi, Whitney grew up cooking at the elbows of true masters of Southern cuisine: her mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. From the secret to making perfect, flaky biscuits to the art of whipping up Sunday supper for a crowd, Whitney not only learned how to create much-loved dishes for friends and family but also discovered the most essential ingredient for any meal: hospitality.

In Modern Hospitality, Whitney offers a fresh take on classic dishes passed down throughout generations of Southern women. In addition to providing more than 75 original recipes that showcase regional ingredients and authentic flavors, Whitney also shares her stories of family, tradition, and suggestions for effortless entertaining. Bring a taste of the South into your home with dishes like Oven-Fried Catfish, Shrimp and Sausage with Grits Soufflé, Mississippi Cheesesteak, and Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Blondies. With recipes this simple, elegant, and delicious, it’s easy to turn any occasion into something special.

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Whitney Miller is the winner of MasterChef Season 1. She is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, where she majored in nutrition. Whitney and her mother recently opened a small café in their hometown of Poplarville, Mississippi.

Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends

New Book Review

Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends, by Eva Longoria and Marah Stets. Eva Longoria may be most recognized for her role as Desperate Housewives’ saucy Gabrielle Solis, but on her own time, there are few places she would rather be than in the kitchen, cooking the food she loves for her family and friends. Here is the food Eva loves to eat, and the recipes in Eva’s Kitchen trace her life story, taking readers on her culinary journey—from the food she was brought up on to the recipes inspired by her travels abroad to the dishes she serves during casual nights at home.

Having grown up on a ranch with every meal based on what was in the family fields, Eva believes, like so many of us, that good cooking relies on local, fresh, easy-to-find ingredients. In Eva’s Kitchen, she teaches readers essential cooking skills and she sprinkles in the histories and traditions behind her favorite dishes, including personal stories and anecdotes that capture the warmth, humor, and joy of her most memorable meals.

In her first cookbook, Eva welcomes you into her kitchen, offering 100 of her favorite dishes—many of which are family recipes collected over the years—all fused with her passion for cooking. She also shares memories of her Texas ranch upbringing, her very first cooking adventures, vacations overseas, nights in with her girlfriends, and last-minute pre–red carpet meals.

Inspired by her heritage, Eva highlights the essentials of great Mexican cooking, Texas style—with her family’s recipes and techniques for making the world’s best tamales, homemade tortillas, Spanish rice, and Pan de Polvo (Mexican pastry), to name a few. She also offers dishes from a variety of international cuisines, from Latin American to Italian and French, inspired by her globe-trotting travels. A taste of Lemon Dover Sole whisks Eva to a tiny hotel-restaurant she once visited on a trip to Normandy; the recipe for Cannellini Beans with Crushed Red Pepper was a souvenir from a trip to Florence; kimchi adds a kick to her Spicy Roasted Brussels Sprouts, a Thanksgiving staple; and Yellow Squash Soup with Lemon brings her full circle, back to her family’s vegetable garden in Corpus Christi.

With full-color food photographs, intimate portraits of her family and friends, and a glimpse into Eva’s home and her lesser-known domestic side (family first, acting second, she says), Eva’s debut cookbook will entice her loyal fans and inspire home cooks to broaden their culinary horizons and create memorable meals for the people they love. (Reviewed by Rachel Ray.) Click here for more information or to order.

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Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen

New Book Review

Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen, by Heidi Swanson. Heidi Swanson's approach to cooking whole, natural foods has earned her a global readership. From her Northern California kitchen, she introduced us to a less-processed world of cooking and eating through her award-winning blog, 101 Cookbooks, and in her James Beard Award–nominated cookbook, Super Natural Cooking, she taught us how to expand our pantries and integrate nutrient-rich superfoods into our diets.

In Super Natural Every Day, Heidi helps us make nutritionally packed meals part of our daily repertoire by sharing a sumptuous collection of nearly 100 of her go-to recipes. These are the dishes that Heidi returns to again and again because they’re approachable, good for the body, and just plain delicious. This stylish cookbook is equal parts inspiration and instruction, showing us how to create a welcoming table filled with nourishing food for friends and family.

The seductively flavorful vegetarian recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, treats, and drinks are quick to the table but tasty enough to linger over. Grab a Millet Muffin or some flaky Yogurt Biscuits for breakfast on the go, or settle into a lazy Sunday morning with a stack of Multi-grain Pancakes and a steaming cup of Ginger Tea. A bowl of Summer Squash Soup or a couple of Chanterelle Tacos make for a light and healthy lunch, and for dinner, there’s Black Sesame Otsu, Pomegranate-Glazed Eggplant with Tempeh, or the aptly named Weeknight Curry. Heidi’s Rose Geranium Prosecco is the perfect start to a celebratory meal, and the Buttermilk Cake with fresh plums or Sweet Panzanella will satisfy even the most stubborn sweet tooth.

Gorgeously illustrated with over 100 photos that showcase the engaging rhythms of Heidi’s culinary life and travels, Super Natural Every Day reveals the beauty of uncomplicated food prepared well and reflects a realistic yet gourmet approach to a healthy and sophisticated natural foods lifestyle.

Writer, photographer, and designer Heidi Swanson is the creator of 101 Cookbooks, the award-winning culinary blog and recipe journal. She is also the author of Cook 1.0 and Super Natural Cooking. Her work has appeared in Food & Wine, Saveur, Glamour, the Washington Post, Time, Fast Company, Utne Reader, and the Vegetarian Times, as well as on Salon.com and NPR.com. Heidi lives, cooks, and writes in San Francisco. Click here for more information or to order.

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

New Book Review

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton. Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than one hundred friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became as necessary to her as her own skin.

Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; the soulless catering factories that helped pay the rent; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a difficult and prickly marriage that nonetheless yields rich and lasting dividends.

Blood, Bones & Butter is an unflinching and lyrical work. Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion. By turns epic and intimate, it marks the debut of a tremendous literary talent.

From the book: “I wanted the lettuce and eggs at room temperature . . . the butter-and-sugar sandwiches we ate after school for snack . . . the marrow bones my mother made us eat as kids that I grew to crave as an adult. . . . There would be no ‘conceptual’ or ‘intellectual’ food, just the salty, sweet, starchy, brothy, crispy things that one craves when one is actually hungry. In ecstatic farewell to my years of corporate catering, we would never serve anything but a martini in a martini glass. Preferably gin.”

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Gabrielle Hamilton is the chef/owner of Prune restaurant in New York’s East Village. She received an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, Bon Appétit, Saveur, and Food & Wine. Hamilton has also authored the 8-week Chef Column in The New York Times, and her work has been anthologized in six volumes of Best Food Writing. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and the Food Network, among other television. She lives in Manhattan with her two sons.

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Simply Great Breads

New Book Review

Simply Great Breads: Sweet and Savory Yeasted Treats from America's Premier Artisan Baker, by Daniel Leader. If bread is the staff of life, then this book by renowned artisanal baker Daniel Leader is every home baker’s must-have cookbook. Featuring an amazing array of incredible delicacies made with yeast, it’s the perfect combination of easy and sophisticated recipes, with the keys to unlocking basics of working with yeasted doughs. Who can resist a collection of 50 mouthwatering treats, essential recipes for everyone who loves bread? The menu includes must-bake breakfast classics like crumpets and English muffins, and the three irresistible Bs: bagels, brioche, and bialys … timeless favorites such as Parker House rolls, ciabatta, and challah … plus waffles, cider doughnuts, beignets, babka, and monkey bread. Bakers of all skill levels will learn tips and trade secrets from Leader, who has shared his vast knowledge with people around the world.

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Daniel Leader was one of the first champions of artisanal bread baking in this country; he founded the first Bread Alone Bakery in the Hudson Valley in the early ‘80s. Now a classic, Leader’s book, Bread Alone, won the IACP award for best baking book in 1994. In 2008, Leader won his second IACP award for Local Breads, also written with Lauren Chattman. LAUREN CHATTMAN is the author of 12 cookbooks, including the recent Cake Keeper Cakes and Panini Express, which she co-wrote with Leader.

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The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet

New Book Review

The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet, by Alicia Silverstone and Neal D. Bernard. In The Kind Diet, actress, activist, and committed conservationist Alicia Silverstone shares the insights that encouraged her to swear off meat and dairy forever, and outlines the spectacular benefits of adopting a plant-based diet, from effortless weight loss to clear skin, off-the-chart energy, and smooth digestion. She explains how meat, fish, milk, and cheese—the very foods we’ve been taught to regard as the cornerstone of good nutrition—are actually the culprits behind escalating rates of disease and the cause of dire, potentially permanent damage to our ecology.

Yet going meat- and dairy-free doesn’t mean suffering deprivation; to the contrary, The Kind Diet introduces irresistibly delicious food that satisfies on every level—it even includes amazing desserts to keep the most stubborn sweet tooth happy. Alicia also addresses the nutritional concerns faced by many who are new to a plant-based diet, and shows how to cover every nutritional base, from protein to calcium and beyond.

Alicia knows that changing life-long dietary habits is a process, and that each person progresses at a different pace. For that reason, The Kind Diet encompasses 3 separate levels, from Flirting to Superhero. Flirts learn to dip a toe into the vegan pool, reducing their meat-eating and swapping out a few key foods for plant-based substitutes to see quickly how even small changes can reap big results. Vegans get to experience the life-altering effects of forgoing animal-products entirely, while still enjoying many convenience foods and meat substitutes in addition to the wonderful grains, vegetables and fruits that form the core of that diet. True enlightenment comes with the Superhero program, based on the principles of macrobiotics and built on a foundation of whole grains, vegetables, and other yummy foods that Alicia describes in detail.

Whether your goal is to drop a few pounds, boost your energy and metabolism, or simply save the world, Alicia provides the encouragement, the information, and the tools you need to make the transition to a plant-based diet deliciously empowering.

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Alicia Silverstone, perhaps best known for her generation-defining turn in Clueless, continues to work steadily in film, television, and theater. A dynamic fixture in the acting, political, and scientific communities, she is a dedicated advocate on behalf of the planet and its animals, and was voted "Sexiest Vegetarian Alive" in 2004. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Christopher, and their four rescued dogs.

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The Happy Herbivore Cookbook

New Book Review

The Happy Herbivore Cookbook: Over 175 Delicious Fat-Free and Low-Fat Vegan Recipes, by Lindsay S. Nixon. Vegan chef of one of the top 50 food blogs on the Web, HappyHerbivore.com, Lindsay S. Nixon, creates recipes that show eating a low fat vegan diet is not only healthy but delicious, too. Now, Nixon combines some of her tastiest recipes in The Happy Herbivore Cookbook, each made with no added fats, using only whole, unprocessed plant-based foods. With Nixon's help its easy to make healthy food at home in minutes using inexpensive, "everyday" ingredients and tools.

The Happy Herbivore Cookbook includes:

A variety of recipes from quick and simple to decadent and advanced.

Helpful hints and cooking tips making home cooking easy and stress-free.

An easy-to-use glossary demystifying any ingredients that may be new to the reader.

Pairing suggestions with each recipe to help make menu planning easy and painless.

Allergen-free recipes, including gluten-free, soy-free and sugar-free.

The Happy Herbivore Cookbook is easy-to-follow with a comprehensive index so you can always find what you're looking for or find a recipe to use up a leftover ingredient. Nixon also provides nutritional analyses; inspiring colorful photographs on nearly every page; funny blurbs at the beginning of each recipe; and chef's notes suggesting variations for each dish. Even the most novice cook will find healthy cooking easy--and delicious!

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Lindsay S. Nixon is a rising star in the culinary world, praised for her ability to use everyday ingredients to create healthy, low fat recipes that taste just as delicious as they are nutritious. Lindsay's recipes have been featured in Vegetarian Times, Women's Health Magazine and on The Huffington Post. Lindsay is also a consulting chef at La Samanna, a luxury resort and four-star restaurant in the French West Indies. You can learn more about Lindsay and sample some of her recipes at happyherbivore.com.

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Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat

New Book Review

Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat, by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas. "One of America's great chefs" (Vogue) shares how his drive to cook immaculate food won him international renown-and fueled his miraculous triumph over tongue cancer.

In 2007, chef Grant Achatz seemingly had it made. He had been named one of the best new chefs in America by Food & Wine in 2002, received the James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 2003, and in 2005 he and Nick Kokonas opened the conceptually radical restaurant Alinea, which was named Best Restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine. Then, positioned firmly in the world's culinary spotlight, Achatz was diagnosed with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma-tongue cancer.

The prognosis was grim, and doctors agreed the only course of action was to remove the cancerous tissue, which included his entire tongue. Desperate to preserve his quality of life, Grant undertook an alternative treatment of aggressive chemotherapy and radiation. But the choice came at a cost. Skin peeled from the inside of Grant's mouth and throat, he rapidly lost weight, and most alarmingly, he lost his sense of taste. Tapping into the discipline, passion, and focus of being a chef, Grant rarely missed a day of work. He trained his chefs to mimic his palate and learned how to cook with his other senses. As Kokonas was able to attest: The food was never better. Five months later, Grant was declared cancer-free, and just a few months following, he received the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef in America Award.

Life, on the Line tells the story of a culinary trailblazer's love affair with cooking, but it is also a book about survival, about nurturing creativity, and about profound friendship. Already much- anticipated by followers of progressive cuisine, Grant and Nick's gripping narrative is filled with stories from the world's most renowned kitchens-The French Laundry, Charlie Trotter's, el Bulli- and sure to expand the audience that made Alinea the number-one selling restaurant cookbook in America last year. Click here for more information or to order.

Grant Achatz is the multiple award-winning chef and owner of Alinea in Chicago. He has written for Gourmet, The New York Times Diner's Journal, and is a columnist for The Atlantic's Food Channel. Nick Kokonas partnered with Grant Achatz in 2005 to develop Alinea, where he remains actively engaged in its strategy, marketing, and business planning.

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Cooking Light Comfort Food

New Book Review

Cooking Light Comfort Food: Home Cooked, Delicious Classics--Made Light, by the editors of Cooking Light Magazine. This fresh approach on comfort food takes the food readers love to a whole new level. Cooking Light is passionate about making healthy taste great, and for years has been helping readers transform their favorite recipes from their often unhealthy originals into healthier versions that retain all the memorable flavors. Comfort Food is Cooking Light's first collection of over 200 classic comfort food recipes that fit into a balanced diet-and no one will know they are light.

Readers can choose from fried chicken, mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, brownies and cookies, coconut pie, crab cakes, sweet potato casserole, and more! Along with the recipes, the Cooking Light Test Kitchens staff includes their tips and techniques for lightening a variety of recipe classics-from casseroles and soups to pasta and pancakes, helping readers learn strategies to "lighten up" some of their own favorites.

Packed with helpful tips and colorful photos, Cooking Light Comfort Food is loaded with special features: "5 Ways with..." provides readers with five unique recipes for enjoying classics like mashed potatoes, meatloaf, and mac and cheese. "Recipe Makeovers" highlights a reader-submitted recipe and how it is made healthier-while keeping it delicious at the same time. Saving time is always important to busy home cooks, so "30 Minutes or Less" icons showcase super-quick and easy recipes. There is something for everyone in this warm, cozy cookbook that's chock-full of comforting recipes. Click here for more information or to order.

Cooking Light, America's leading epicurean magazine and authority on healthy cooking, is dedicated to helping its more than 12 million readers make healthy taste great.

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes

New Book Review

Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes, by Elizabeth Bard. In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again. Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak's pink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese-there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart.

Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success and discovering what it truly means to be at home. In the delicious tradition of memoirs like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, this book is the perfect treat for anyone who has dreamed that lunch in Paris could change their life.

Elizabeth Bard is an American journalist based in Paris. She has written about art, travel and digital culture for The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Wired, Time Out and The Huffington Post. She makes a mean chocolate soufflé. Click here for more information or to order.

The Elements of Life: A Contemporary Guide to Thai Recipes and Traditions for Healthier Living

New Book Review

The Elements of Life: A Contemporary Guide to Thai Recipes and Traditions for Healthier Living, by Su-Mei Yu. In Thailand, food is about nourishment, enjoyment, and the interplay of flavors, but it's also about healing and wellness. The Thai philosophy is based on the notion that each of us is born under a "home element"—Earth, Water, Wind, or Fire—which is also present in our physical bodies. By eating to satisfy your home element, in combination with the time of day and the weather, you create your own optimal health, beauty, and spiritual well-being. Su-Mei Yu, born in Thailand to Chinese parents, grew up amid these ancient beliefs, though her own family's approach was slightly different. She moved to America as a teenager and eventually opened San Diego's first Thai restaurant. On one of her annual trips back to Thailand, Yu encountered a folk doctor who determined her home element as Water. With uncanny accuracy, he announced that she thrived in warm, dry climates, and that she preferred sour, bland, and bitter flavors. Intrigued, Yu researched the philosophy behind the home elements, and in The Elements of Life, she brings it to Western home cooks for the first time.

In the first chapter, Yu helps you determine your own home element, using a special wheel affixed to the inside back cover of the book. Then she guides you to a basic understanding of how to plan meals around your home element in conjunction with the weather and the time of day. From there, she moves into the recipes—glorious, richly flavorful recipes that fuse Western influences and Thai traditions.

The Basics chapter offers foundations you'll use across all the elements, including recipes for breakfast (Applesauce Pancakes), lunch (Tom Ka, a coconut cream soup), and dinner (Panang Curry). Here you'll find drinks, salad dressings, stir-fries, soups, curries, and much more.

Next, Yu devotes a chapter to each element. She identifies the personal characteristics related to that home element and the tastes, flavors, and aromas best suited to it, with a chart of natural ingredients that possess those qualities. Then come the recipes, meant to balance the element, time of day, and type of weather. Cold Soba Noodles, Grilled Shrimp and Mango Salad, Persian-Thai Fried Rice, and Stir-Fried Chicken or Pork with Watermelon Rind—each offers benefits for one or more elements. Every chapter ends with recipes for natural beauty treatments, massage oils, and healing balms.

With a wealth of simple, inspiring recipes and straightforward, easy-to-follow advice, The Elements of Life will help you follow a traditional, natural, and remarkably effective path to health, beauty, longevity, and inner peace.

Su-Mei Yu was born in Thailand to Chinese parents and lived there until she was fifteen, when she was sent to boarding school in the United States. After stints as a social worker and an assistant professor, in 1985 she opened Saffron, the first Thai restaurant in San Diego, which has received national acclaim. Yu writes frequently for food magazines including Food & Wine, Fine Cooking, and Gastronomica. Also the author of Asian Grilling and the IACP Award–winning cookbook Cracking the Coconut, she lives in La Jolla, California. Click here for more information or to order.

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The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life

New Book Review

The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life, by Ann Vanderhoof. While sailing around the Caribbean, Ann Vanderhoof and her husband Steve track wild oregano-eating goats in the cactus-covered hills of the Dominican Republic, gather nutmegs on an old estate in Grenada, make searing-hot pepper sauce in a Trinidadian kitchen, cram for a chocolate-tasting test at the University of the West Indies, and sip moonshine straight out of hidden back-country stills. Along the way, they are befriended by a collection of unforgettable island characters: Dwight, the skin-diving fisherman who always brings them something from his catch and critiques her efforts to cook it; Greta, who harvests seamoss on St. Lucia and turns it into potent Island-Viagra; sweet-hand Pat, who dispenses hugs and impromptu dance lessons along with cooking tips in her Port of Spain kitchen.

Back in her galley, Ann practices making curry like a Trini, dog sauce like a like a Carriacouan. And for those who want to take these adventures in Martiniquais, and coo-coo to their own kitchens, she pulls 71 delicious recipes from the stories she tells, which she places at the end of the relevant chapters. The Spice Necklace is a wonderful escape into a life filled with sunshine (and hurricanes), delicious food, irreplaceable company, and island traditions. Click here for more information or to order.

Vietnamese Cuisine - Fresh Ingredients and Healthy Eating

New Book Review

Vietnamese Cuisine - Fresh Ingredients and Healthy Eating, by Chef's Secret Vault. Vietnamese cuisine subscribes to the same Chinese principles of yin and yang — the balance of opposites — but takes on its own distinct personality through the use of local ingredients and indigenous spices. As in China, you will find a balance of the five flavors — sweetness, sourness, saltiness, hotness, and bitterness — cooked in stir-fries, hearty soups and rice and noodle dishes. This cookbook sampler (which has been hand crafted & edited by us) is unique-unlike many of the e-books sold today that are copies of copies that have been hastily put together with no thought, care or editing. It offers 20 of the Best of the Best and most delicious Vietnamese recipes like (Green Papaya Salad (Goi Du Du), Lime-Cured Beef Salad (Goi Bo), Pork Simmered with Five Spice Powder (Thit Thung), Sesame Cookies (Banh Me), Spicy Chicken with Mint Leaves & Much More…) from the Chef's Secret Vault. Your friends and family will think you've been taking lessons in gourmet cooking. So don't miss this chance to add some treasured recipes to your personal collection. Click here for more information or to instantly download.

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How Did That Get In My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food

New Book Review

How Did That Get In My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food, by Chris Butterworth and Lucia Gaggioti. Fresh retro artwork lures little readers on a tasty trip to farms, dairies, and more. Yum! The best part of a young child’s day is often opening a lunchbox and diving in. But how did all that delicious food get there? Who made the bread for the sandwich? What about the cheese inside? Who plucked the fruit? And where did the chocolate in that cookie get its start? From planting wheat to mixing flour into dough, climbing trees to machine-squeezing fruit, picking cocoa pods to stirring a vat of melted bliss, here is a clear, engaging look at the steps involved in producing some common foods. Healthy tips and a peek at basic food groups complete the menu.

Chris Butterworth is the author of Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea, winner of a John Muir prize for natural history writing. The author of many nonfiction books for children, she lives in Cornwall, England. Lucia Gaggiotti is a graphic designer, packager, and illustrator whose images of food have been used by many food companies in London, including Carluccios and Pizza Express. She lives in London. Click here for more information or to order.

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