Food52 a New Way to Dinner - (Food52 Works) by Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"A gift for the time-harried, food-particular cook: a shopping and cooking plan for meals that can be prepared in advance to carry you deliciously through the week. It's not only the recipes that are inspiring, but also the organizing rambunctiousness and confidence-embuing enthusiasm of the authors. Rich in ideas and hand-holding pointers, this is a book that makes itself immediately indispensable."
--Nigela Lawson

"I want to hug this book! It's like one long pep talk from your best friends who know everything about good food and always keep their cool in the kitchen. Amanda and Merrill guide you through the process of making beautiful home-cooked dinners--from menu planning to grocery shopping to reheating leftovers. They make an intimidating challenge (orchestrating five meals, plus brown-bag lunches, for a week) seem not only doable but also somehow even serene. I'm so inspired by this book--it's a treasure trove of Amanda and Merrill's genius."
--Joanna Goddard, founder of A Cup of Jo

"It occurred to me that the book had a certain Marie Kondo quality to it: the life-changing magic of planning your week."
--New York Times

Best Cookbooks of Fall 2016
--New York Times

Best Cookbooks of Fall 2016
--WSJ Magazine

Favorite Cookbooks of Fall 2016
--Los Angeles Times

"Hesser and Stubbs are steeped in practical home cooking, both professionally and personally, and they know what they're talking about."
--New York Times

"Food52 co-founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs have hit upon a brilliant idea: Just because weekdays are frantic affairs, doesn't mean weeknight dinners have to be. It's a rescue plan that involves weekend cooking and then weeknight repurposing. Planned leftovers. It's genius."
--San Jose Mercury News

"You will forget all about GrubHub as soon as you delve into this photo-driven book that divides the chapters by base dishes, to be made over the weekend, with a foolproof formula of how to stretch them over the week in a variety of innovative ways. With grocery lists and timelines to accompany each week, cooking ahead has never been easier or more delicious."
--Nylon

"It's a self-help book masquerading as a cookbook, through which Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, the multitalented and very successful entrepreneurs behind the Food52 recipe repository and lifestyle website, try to help you live a better life."
--Lucky Peach

". . . will keep you cooking smartly and happily."
--Los Angeles Times

"An excellent concept, well-executed. Brava!"
--The Kitchn

"From the founders of one of our favorite food websites, this is a meal-planning book that feels far more modern and sophisticated than the usual meal planners."
--The Record

"Divided by season and by the authors, it's a beautiful book with food you want to eat. The 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."
--Chowhound

About the Author

Amanda Hesser is the co-founder of Food52 and was previously a writer and editor at the New York Times. She wrote the award-winning books Cooking for Mr. Latte and The Cook and the Gardener. Her last book, a Times bestseller and the winner of a James Beard Award, is The Essential New York Times Cookbook. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and twins.

Merrill Stubbs is the co-founder of Food52 and has written for many food and lifestyle publications, including the New York Times. She cut her teeth in the test kitchen at Cook's Illustrated and behind the counter at Flour Bakery in Boston before she worked with Amanda Hesser on The Essential New York Times Cookbook. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.