Cookbooks for Everyone This Holiday Season!

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HEADLINE NEWS » Cookbooks for Everyone This Holiday Season!

If you didn't get all your shopping done on Black Friday, keep in mind cookbooks always make great gifts - whether they're for the seasoned professional or an aspiring novice, they can be sources of both inspiration and instruction. Here are a handful of cookbooks from some of Boston's highly acclaimed chefs so you can find the perfect fit for every foodie on your list.

In the Hands of a Chef:
Cooking with Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant
Chef Jody Adams shares recipes for her favorite dishes – the ones she prepares at home for friends and family when she’s not at Rialto. By breaking the recipes down to the absolute basics – starting with what to look for at the supermarket or farm stand, and equipment essentials – Adams gives the home cook a great foundation for thinking and cooking like a chef.

The Boston Globe
Illustrated New England Seafood Cookbook
Plucked from the pages of the Boston Globe Food Section, this collection of seafood-focused recipes highlights contributions from Boston’s most acclaimed chefs including Ken Oringer of Clio, Toro and KO Prime fame, Lydia Shire of Locke Ober and Scampo, Jasper White of the Summer Shack, Ana Sortun of Oleana and Sofra Bakery, Gordon Hamersley of Hamersley’s Bistro and Jody Adams or Rialto at the Charles Hotel.

Fresh & Honest:
Food From the Farms of New England
and the Kitchen of Henrietta's Table
A longtime proponent of sustainable dining and the use of local, farm-fresh foods, chef Peter Davis plucks some of his most tantalizing recipes, fresh from the menus of Henrietta’s Table, and puts them all together in this 218-page, full color cookbook. New England cuisine comes to life through the cooking and the farmer and purveyor profiles scattered throughout.

The Olives Table:
Over 160 Recipes from the Critically Acclaimed Restaurant
and Home Kitchen of Todd English
Chef and restaurateur Todd English demystifies some of the recipes from the menu at the original Olives, the cornerstone of his restaurant empire. Home cooks will be pleasantly surprised to find that English’s special brand of deliciousness comes from layering of flavors and textures so there are no intimidating pieces of equipment or techniques.

The Figs Table:
More Than 100 Recipes for Pizzas, Pastas, Salads & Desserts
As a follow up to his Olives cookbook, chef and restaurateur Todd English shares the savory, innovative, Mediterranean-inspired food that’s made Figs such a hit. With the book’s careful instruction, home cooks will learn how to layer flavors to recreate English’s award-winning, soulful fare – including his sophisticated (and square) pizzas.

The Olives Dessert Table:
Spectacular Restaurant Desserts You Can Make at Home
Demonstrating that his culinary style and philosophy applies just as well to sweets as it does to savories, chef and restaurateur Todd English includes some of his award-winning recipes in this dessert-focused tome. Combining familiar flavors in innovative ways, English walks the home cook through recreating his exceptional desserts.

Bistro Cooking at Home
Chef-owner Gordon Hamersley lends the home cook a helping hand with an array of sophisticated but easy-to-prepare options that’ll bring that bistro vibe home. With lots of stews, roasts and braises the book is full of recipes that allow the cooker to tend to other things – some are even best if prepared a couple days ahead of time, which makes them perfect for seamless holiday entertaining. Co-owner (and wife) Fiona Hamersley offers knowledgeable, down-to-earth wine recommendations with each entrée so the home cook can recreate the whole Hamersley’s Bistro experience at home.

The Fearless Chef:
Innovative Recipes from the Edge of American Cuisine
Taking your cooking to the next level takes a touch of fearlessness – luckily Tremont 647 chef-owner Andy Husbands has fearlessness to spare. With some guidance from the pages of this cookbook, home cooks can expand beyond their usual repertoire and explore the edge of American cuisine. Husbands teaches the home cook how to incorporate bold global flavors to spice up the most basic meal.

Kinkead's Cookbook:
Recipes from Washington D.C.'s Premier Seafood Restaurant
Bob Kinkead, chef-owner of Washington D.C.’s popular fish and seafood restaurant, Kinkead’s, and one of the two brothers behind Boston’s Sibling Rivalry, brings his seafood expertise and American brasserie style right into the home cook’s kitchen with 120 recipes that combine international influences with sensibly balanced flavors. Kinkead shares some of his tips for selecting and preparing fresh seafood, and some behind-the-scenes stories from the restaurant industry.

Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition
A self-taught chef and Boston native, chef Barbara Lynch discovered her passion for cooking in Home Economics. Lynch’s hunger for knowledge, hard work, and raw smarts enabled her to create her own distinct culinary style and build a successful restaurant empire, which includes No. 9 Park, B&G Oysters, The Butcher Shop and Sportello. For this, her first cookbook, she culls 150 recipes that combine her award winning sophistication and practicality to help the home cook create a stir at home.

Wine Mondays:
Simple Wine Pairings with Seasonal Menus
Chef-owner Frank McClelland compiles some of his greatest hits and adapts them for the home cook for his first cookbook. Plucked from the menus of Wine Mondays, L’Espalier’s weekly wine dinner series, the recipes are all accompanied by suggested wine pairings, which allows the home cook to focus on mastering McClelland’s award-winning French fare instead of what to pour with them.

It's About Time:
Great Recipes for Everyday Life
Home cooks will come back to chef Michael Schlow’s cookbook again and again for its inspirational stories, informative sidebars, helpful tricks, and most of all, for its broad range of never-fail recipes that are easy to follow and always special. Among the book’s 248 pages are 150 painstakingly tested recipes – ones for 30 minute meals and ones for more elegant meals like the ones you might expect at Radius, Via Matta or Alta Strada.

The Boston Chef's Table:
The Best in Contemporary Cuisine
Clara Silverstein pulls together more than 100 recipes from Boston’s best and brightest chefs for this cookbook. Among the chefs customizing their restaurant recipes for the home cook are Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger, Lydia Shire of Locke Ober, Jasper White of the Summer Shack, Todd English of Olives, Jody Adams of Rialto and Geoff Gardner of Sel de la Terre. The collection includes some traditional regional fare (like the lobster roll and Boston baked beans) as well as more contemporary fare.

Spice:
Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean
In this beautifully realized, and much-anticipated cookbook, Oleana chef-owner Ana Sortun shows readers how to use the philosophy of spice to create wonderful Eastern Mediterranean dishes from their very own kitchens. Organized by spice, the book details the ways in which certain spices complement each other, helping the home cook gain confidence and a more intuitive way of using spices in their own cooking.

Blue Ginger:
East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai
In chef Ming Tsai’s first cookbook, the popular chef and TV host shares the technique and philosophy behind the award-winning east-meets-west-cuisine that’s put Blue Ginger, his Wellesley restaurant on the national culinary map. Bursting with tips for working with unfamiliar ingredients and preparations, Blue Ginger is an outstanding introduction to the pleasures of cross-cultural cooking.

Simply Ming:
Easy Techniques for East-Meets-West Meals
In his sophomore effort, Blue Ginger’s Ming Tsai applies his innovative east-meets-west skills to everyday cooking, transforming standard fare like spaghetti, burgers and chicken wings into delicious and exciting new dishes. With a versatile array of master recipes for sauces, rubs, dressings and more, Tsai minimizes last-minute prep and makes fusion fare approachable for the home cook.

50 Chowders:
One Pot Meals - Clam, Corn, & Beyond
Chef Jasper White blows the lid off the whole genre with a cookbook featuring fifty chowder recipes that go well beyond corn and clam varieties. Once they master the chowder basics (real chowder consists of chunks of local seasonal ingredients served in a moderate amount of broth) home cooks will, with a little guidance from the man behind the seafood-laden menus at The Summer Shack, discover the diversity of ingredients that can be incorporated to create chowders like they never imagined.

The Summer Shack Cookbook:
The Complete Guide to Shore Food
Summer Shack chef-owner and seafood expert Jasper White brings the flavors and foods of summer in New England right into the home kitchen with this book of more than 200 easy-to-make recipes. White demystifies summertime favorites (like clam rolls or lobster rolls) and the requisite skills each one requires (like shucking clams and cracking open a lobster) so the home cook can enjoy the style, fun, and flavors of the shore all year long—without any fuss.

Lobster at Home
Lobster may seem like a luxurious special occasion treat but when enjoyed at home, lobster can make a relatively affordable and healthful meal – it’s low in calories and packed with Omega 3 acids. In 256 pages full of all sorts of words of wisdom, Summer Shack chef-owner Jasper White will walk the home cook through how to get the most from each delicious crustacean. The book explains everything (how to choose just the right lobster; how to steam it; and how to extract every last morsel of meat) and includes recipes that range from simple to sublime.

Jasper White's Cooking from New England:
More Than 300 Traditional Contemporary Recipes
Even before becoming Boston’s seafood maven, Summer Shack chef-owner Jasper White was considered an expert in all things New England – culinarily speaking, that is. In this, his first cookbook, he explores the wide-ranging depth of traditional and contemporary New England cookery, offering delicious recipes for fish, venison, poultry, and other foods. His dishes, steeped though they are in tradition, also reflect contemporary health concerns.