“A testament to crowd-sourcing, to accomplished cooks who don’t necessarily blog, and to Food52.com’s smart curating.” —Washington Post 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’s something for everyone . . . from crowd-pleasing Zucchini Pancakes to elegant Risotto Rosso. And isn’t it heartwarming that something as ephemeral as a blog, about something as transient as food, might be just good enough to make it to your permanent bookshelf? Take a bow, home cooks.” —NPR “Even readers with a shelf full of cookbooks will appreciate the book's broad, creative collection. . . . Cooks of all skill levels will find plenty of room to stretch.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

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.

A “wonderful” new collection of seasonal recipes from America’s best home cooks, compiled by the team behind the James Beard Award–winning website (Publishers Weekly, starred review). The Food52 Cookbook was named one of the Best Cookbooks of the Year by NPR and the Washington Post. Now the pioneers of the online community cookbook return with a second helping of delicious, seasonal recipes from the country’s most inventive home cooks. The Food52 Cookbook, Volume 2 features contest winners and community favorites including: Late-Night Coffee-Brined Chicken Roasted Carrot Soup Herbed Beef Skewers with Horseradish Cream Kentucky Hot Toddy Burnt Caramel Pudding Crispy Salt-and-Pepper French Toast Korean Fried Chicken Wings, and many more “Full of interesting, unique dishes and candid comments from Food52.com groupies, The Food52 Cookbook, Volume 2 inspires as easily as it charms . . . a carefully edited selection of the crème de la crème efforts by home cooks.” —The Christian Science Monitor “Accessible and appealing. . . . beautifully photographed and organized by season.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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 WINNER • ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S FIFTEEN ESSENTIAL COOKBOOKS • 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.

An essential collection of hassle-free, vibrant vegan recipes, from the author behind Food52's wildly popular The New Veganism and Vegan Lunch columns. Omnivore or vegan (or anywhere in between), we’re all looking for memorable, flavorful dishes to cook for ourselves and the people we care about. If those recipes happen to be healthful, nourishing, and friendly to vegetarians and vegans, even better. With her wildly popular New Veganism column on Food52, Gena Hamshaw has inspired home cooks to incorporate plant-based recipes into their everyday routine—and even gained some nutritional yeast and cashew cheese converts. This vibrant collection of all-new recipes plus beloved favorites from the column—along with exquisite photography and helpful tips throughout—will show all of us innovative ways to cook with fresh produce and whole foods. From Savory Breakfast Polenta to Cauliflower and Oyster Mushroom Tacos to Ginger Roasted Pears with Vanilla Cream, these recipes are delicious, dependable, and deeply satisfying. Cook from this book just a couple of times and you’ll soon find yourself stocking up on coconut oil, blending your own nut milks, seeking the sweetest tomatoes at the market, and looking at plant-based dishes in a whole new way.

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.

A collection of 60 recipes for turning ordinary salads into one-dish worthy meals. Does anybody need a recipe to make a salad? Of course not. But if you want your salad to hold strong in your lunch bag or carry the day as a one-bowl dinner, dressing on lettuce isn’t going to cut it. Make way for Mighty Salads, in which the editors of Food52 present sixty salads hefty with vegetables, meats, grains, beans, fish, seafood, pasta, and bread. Think shrimp and radicchio tossed in a bacon vinaigrette, a make-ahead jumble of white beans with charred lemon and fennel, slow-roasted duck and apples scattered across spicy greens. It’s comforting food made captivating by simply charring one ingredient or marinating another—shaving some, or roasting a bunch. But because we don’t always follow recipes, there are also loose formulas for confident off-roading, as well as back-pocket tips and genius tricks for improving any old salad. Because once you know how to fix too-salty dressing, wash greens once and for all, keep an avocado from browning, and even sprout your own grains, the humble salad starts looking a lot more interesting—and a whole lot more like dinner.

IACP AWARD WINNER • Food52 is back with the most beloved and talked-about desserts of our time (and the under-the-radar gems that will soon join their ranks)—in a collection that will make you a local legend, and a smarter baker to boot. ONE OF THE NEW YORKER’S FIFTEEN ESSENTIAL COOKBOOKS • Featured as one of the best and most anticipated fall cookbooks by the New York Times, Eater, Epicurious, The Kitchn, Kitchen Arts & Letters, Delish, Mercury News, Sweet Paul, and PopSugar. Drawing from her James Beard Award-nominated Genius Recipes column and powered by the cooking wisdom and generosity of the Food52 community, creative director Kristen Miglore set out to unearth the most game-changing dessert recipes from beloved cookbook authors, chefs, and bakers—and collect them all in one indispensable guide. This led her to iconic desserts spanning the last century: Maida Heatter’s East 62nd Street Lemon Cake, François Payard’s Flourless Chocolate-Walnut Cookies, and Nancy Silverton’s Butterscotch Budino. But it also turned up little-known gems: a comforting Peach Cobbler with Hot Sugar Crust from Renee Erickson and an imaginative Parsnip Cake with Blood Orange Buttercream from Lucky Peach, along with genius tips, riffs, and mini-recipes, and the lively stories behind each one. The genius of this collection is that Kristen has scouted out and rigorously tested recipes from the most trusted dessert experts, finding over 100 of their standouts. Each recipe shines in a different way and teaches you something new, whether it’s how to use unconventional ingredients (like Sunset’s whole orange cake), how to make the most of brilliant methods (roasted sugar from Stella Parks), or how to embrace stunning simplicity (Dorie Greenspan’s three-ingredient cookies). With photographer James Ransom’s riveting images throughout, Genius Desserts is destined to become every baker's go-to reference for the very best desserts from the smartest teachers of our time—for all the dinner parties, potlucks, bake sales, and late-night snacks in between.

A stunning collection of hassle-free recipes for baking cakes, cookies, tarts, puddings, muffins, bread, and more, from the editors behind the leading food website Food52. Whether it's the chocolate cake at every childhood birthday, blondies waiting for you after school, or hot dinner rolls smeared with butter at Thanksgiving dinner, homemade baked goods hold a place in many of our best memories. And that's why baking shouldn't be reserved for special occasions. With this book, curated by the editors of Food52, you can have homemade treats far superior to the store-bought variety, even when it feels like you're too busy to turn on the oven. From Brown Butter Cupcake Brownies to "Cuppa Cuppa Sticka" Peach and Blueberry Cobbler, these sixty reliable, easy-to-execute recipes won't have you hunting down special equipment and hard-to-find ingredients or leave you with a kitchen covered in flour and a skink piled high with bowls. They're not ordinary or ho-hum, either: ingredients you've baked with before (and some you haven't - like black sesame, coconut oil, and lavender) come together to create new favorites like Baked Cardamom French Toast and Olive Oil and Sesame Crackers. Filled with generations’ worth of kitchen wisdom, beautiful photography, and tips you'll return to, Baking is the new go-to collection for anyone who wants to whip up something sweet every day.