A pioneer in the field of healthy cooking, chef Michael Stroot brings classic French cooking techniques and a European sensibility to California's freshest foods. Illustrated with stunning full-color photos, "The Golden Door Cookbook" presents fresh flavors from a wide range of international cuisines, and selected meditations make it easy for readers to recreate the complete spa experience in their own homes. full-color photos.

The first full-color cookbook from the renowned Golden Door spa lets cooks recreate the flavorful fresh recipes of the destination spa--dishes that are so tasty, it's almost impossible to think of them as healthy.

"Sound nutrition is the cornerstone of any healthy lifestyle," writes Michel Stroot, and he should know. As the executive chef at southern California's famed Golden Door Spa, he has perfected the art of conscious cooking and nourishment and now shares over 150 of his unique and delicious recipes in Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy. The Golden Door Spa is one of America's most exclusive holistic wellness retreats, and the celebration of food-from garden to table-is a cornerstone of the spa's "simplicity is luxury" ideology. Stroot's recipes are not only nutritionally balanced, but also imaginative, aromatic, and always delicious. In keeping with the Golden Door Spa philosophy, he aims to "provide the hurried person a cuisine of simple and enticing meals that will renew physical and mental energy," with recipes that use only fresh, healthy ingredients, allowing creativity and spirit to enhance every meal. With guidelines for creating well-balanced meal plans, advice on how to cut time in the kitchen, and ways to reduce fat while enhancing flavor, Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy surpasses so many other cookbooks that amount to nothing more than a list of exotic ingredients from a fancy kitchen. From breakfast to beverages, appetizers to sauces, salads to seafood and easy desserts, Chef Stroot shares his favorite menus as he reflects on the Golden Door belief that "it is necessary to maintain a balance between what goes into our bodies and what we can expect to get out in terms of energy, enthusiasm, and enjoyment."Classically trained, Chef Michel Stroot honed his skills as the executive chef at the Golden Door Spa for more than two decades. His food has been praised by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Gourmet, and Vogue. Stroot has been called "a kitchen genius" and his creations "tantalizing and singularly inspiring." Originally from Belgium, he lives in San Marcos, California.

In his eagerly awaited first cookbook, award-winning chef Charles Phan from San Francisco's Slanted Door restaurant introduces traditional Vietnamese cooking to home cooks by focusing on fundamental techniques and ingredients. When Charles Phan opened his now-legendary restaurant, The Slanted Door, in 1995, he introduced American diners to a new world of Vietnamese food: robustly flavored, subtly nuanced, authentic yet influenced by local ingredients, and, ultimately, entirely approachable. In this same spirit of tradition and innovation, Phan presents a landmark collection based on the premise that with an understanding of its central techniques and fundamental ingredients, Vietnamese home cooking can be as attainable and understandable as American, French, or Italian. With solid instruction and encouraging guidance, perfectly crispy imperial rolls, tender steamed dumplings, delicately flavored whole fish, and meaty lemongrass beef stew are all deliciously close at hand. Abundant photography detailing techniques and equipment, and vibrant shots taken on location in Vietnam, make for equal parts elucidation and inspiration. And with master recipes for stocks and sauces, a photographic guide to ingredients, and tips on choosing a wok and seasoning a clay pot, this definitive reference will finally secure Vietnamese food in the home cook’s repertoire. Infused with the author’s stories and experiences, from his early days as a refugee to his current culinary success, Vietnamese Home Cooking is a personal and accessible guide to real Vietnamese cuisine from one of its leading voices.

Aunt Bee and her friends have stirred up a cookbook that brings home all the flavor of "The Andy Griffith Show's" Mayberry. You'll enjoy most of the 300 mouth-watering recipes (but not all?included is the recipe for Kerosene Cucumbers) for the foods served by Aunt Bee and others in Mayberry. From good old-fashioned, down-home cooking to some of Mayberry's more unusual meals, you'll discover favorite Mayberry-style dishes for all occasions?inspired by Aunt Bee's unsurpassed talents in the kitchen and her special love for her family and friends. Aunt Bee's Mayberry Cookbook is also chock-full of wonderful, rare photographs from "The Andy Griffith Show" and offers entertaining glimpses into "the friendly town." Many of the recipes are favorites from members of the show's cast and crew.

Gifted chef and storyteller Martha Hall Foose invites you into her kitchen to share recipes that bring alive the landscape, people, and traditions that make Southern cuisine an American favorite. Born and raised in Mississippi, Foose cooks Southern food with a contemporary flair: Sweet Potato Soup is enhanced with coconut milk and curry powder; Blackberry Limeade gets a lift from a secret ingredient–cardamom; and her much-ballyhooed Sweet Tea Pie combines two great Southern staples–sweet tea and pie, of course–to make one phenomenal signature dessert. The more than 150 original recipes are not only full of flavor, but also rich with local color and characters. As the executive chef of the Viking Cooking School, teaching thousands of home cooks each year, Foose crafts recipes that are the perfect combination of delicious, creative, and accessible. Filled with humorous and touching tales as well as useful information on ingredients, techniques, storage, shortcuts, variations, and substitutions, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea is a must-have for the American home cook–and a must-read for anyone who craves a return to what cooking is all about: comfort, company, and good eating.

Great cooking--using fresh, seasonal, local ingredients--is at the heart of the experience offered by Rancho La Puerta, Baja California's premier resort spa. Cooking with the Seasons transports that regenerative experience to your own home kitchen, changing the way you think about food and cooking--and, just possibly, changing your life. This is no "diet cookbook," however. For Rancho's founder, Deborah Szekely, and co-author Deborah Schneider, food is the very force of life, and eating simply and healthfully is one of life's most profound pleasures. The book's 120 recipes are organized as a series of complete--and luscious--seasonal menus. As spring rouses the earth, you'll awaken your taste buds with Sorrel and Spinach Salad with Roasted Cumin-Orange Vinaigrette. When summer arrives, your senses will dance with Poached Wild Salmon with Avocado-Tarragon Aioli. You'll revel in fall's brilliant colors with Carrot and Ginger Soup with Pears. And, in winter, you'll welcome the new year with Mayan Chocolate Sorbet. Throughout, sidebar tips give valuable advice on everything from choosing the most healthful grains and flours, to preserving summer's goodness with dried herbs and homemade jams.

Award-winning Cal-A-Vie Health Spa has done it again! Enjoy their second cookbook, which is a larger, more colorful volume, including interesting spa information and healthy cooking tips. Healthy never tasted so good.

Do you like your garlic Goodfellas thin? Have you ever been part of a carrotmob? Why are bartenders fat washing their spirits (and what does that even mean?) Eatymology demystifies the most fascinating new food words to emerge from today's professional kitchens, food science laboratories, pop culture, the Web, and more. With 100 definitions, illustrations, and fun food facts and statistics on everything from bistronomy to wine raves, Eatymology shows you why it's absolutely imperative to adopt a coffee name and what it means to be gastrosexual, and is the perfect gift for everyone from foodiots to brocavores.