For the thousands of people who know nothing about wine and want to rectify that swiftly and painlessly, Mark Oldman-the "Naked Chef" of wine-is here to help with the kind of information readers can use right now.  Loaded with his personal recommendations-including the top 100 wines less than $15-Oldman's Guide also includes the wine picks of an eclectic mix of collectors, from Le Cirque owner Sirio Maccioni to Morley Safer of 60 Minutes. This is a wine guide like no other and is sure to be savored by anyone who wants their wine without the attitude.

Amanda Hesser, the well-known New York Times food columnist, brings her signature voice and expertise to this compendium of influential and delicious recipes from chefs, home cooks, and food writers. Devoted Times subscribers will find the many treasured recipes they have cooked for years Plum Torte, David Eyre's Pancake, Pamela Sherrid's Summer Pasta as well as favorites from the early Craig Claiborne New York Times Cookbook and a host of other classics rom 1940s Caesar salad and 1960s flourless chocolate cake to today's fava bean salad and no-knead bread.

India: The Cookbook is the first comprehensive guide to Indian cooking, with over 1,000 recipes covering every aspect of India's rich and colourful culinary heritage. Unlike many other Indian cookbooks, it is written by an Indian culinary academic and cookbook author who lives and works in Delhi, and the recipes are a true reflection of how traditional dishes are really cooked all over India. They have been carefully edited to ensure that they are simple to follow and achievable in western kitchens, with detailed information about authentic cooking utensils and ingredients.

In his lively close-up portrait of Adria, award-winning food writer Colman Andrews traces this groundbreaking chef's rise from resort-hotel dishwasher to culinary deity, and the evolution of El Bulli from a German-owned beach bar into the establishment voted annually by an international jury to be "the world's best restaurant." Taking the reader from Adria's Franco-era childhood near Barcelona through El Bulli's wildly creative "disco-beach" days and into the modern-day creative wonderland of Adria's restaurant kitchen and the workshop- laboratory where his innovations are born and refined, Andrews blends sweeping storytelling with culinary history to explore Adria's extraordinary contributions to the way we eat.
 

In Oaxaca al Gusto, Kennedy takes us on an amazing journey into one of the most outstanding and colorful cuisines in the world. The state of Oaxaca is one of the most diverse in Mexico, with many different cultural and linguistic groups, often living in areas difficult to access. Each group has its own distinctive cuisine, and Diana Kennedy has spent many years traveling the length and breadth of Oaxaca to record in words and photographs "these little-known foods, both wild and cultivated, the way they were prepared, and the part they play in the daily or festive life of the communities I visited." Oaxaca al Gusto is the fruit of these labors--and the culmination of Diana Kennedy's life's work.

Nobody better embodies the present-day mantra "Eat real food in season" than David Tanis, one of the most original voices in American cooking. For more than a quarter-century, Tanis has been the chef at the groundbreaking Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California, where the menu consists solely of a single perfect meal that changes each evening. Tanis's recipes are down-to-earth yet sophisticated, simple to prepare but impressive on the plate.

With a lifelong passion for candy and an artist's eye, Dylan Lauren shows you how to live la dolce vita. Just like stepping into Dylan's Candy Bar stores a modern-day Willy Wonka like escape opening this book reveals a surprise on every page. Whether you're a candy fanatic or you just want to relive your childhood memories, the Candy Queen has gobs of creative ideas for celebrating, cooking, and decorating with candy on holidays and every day.
 

Acclaimed importer and wine guru Terry Theise, long known for his top-notch portfolio and his illustrious writing, now offers this opinionated, idiosyncratic, and beautifully written testament to wine. What constitutes beauty in wine, and how do we appreciate it? What role does wine play in a soulful, sensual life? Can wines of place survive in a world of globalized styles and 100-point scoring systems? In his highly approachable style, Theise describes how wine can be a portal to aesthetic, emotional, even mystical experience--and he frankly asserts that these experiences are most likely to be inspired by wines from artisan producers.

The Italians have a secret. Over the centuries, they have pioneered more than 300 shapes of pasta, each with a history, a story to tell, and an affinity for particular foods. These shapes have evolved alongside the flavors of local ingredients, and the perfect combination can turn an ordinary dish into something sublime. The Geometry of Pasta pairs more than one hundred authentic recipes from critically acclaimed chef Jacob Kenedy with award-winning designer Caz Hildebrand's stunning black-and-white designs to reveal the science, history, and philosophy behind spectacular pasta dishes from all over Italy.

Keys to Good Cooking distills the modern scientific understanding of cooking and translates it into immediately useful information. Looking at ingredients from the mundane to the exotic, McGee takes you from market to table, teaching, for example, how to spot the most delectable asparagus (choose thick spears); how to best prepare the vegetable (peel, don't snap, the fibrous ends; broiling is one effective cooking method for asparagus and other flat-lying vegetables); and how to present it (coat with butter or oil after cooking to avoid a wrinkled surface). This book will be a requisite countertop resource for all home chefs.

Rene Redzepi has been widely credited with re-inventing Nordic cuisine. His Copenhagen restaurant, Noma, was recognized as the #1 best in the world by the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant awards in April 2010 after receiving the 'Chef's Choice' award in 2009. Redzepi operates at the cutting edge of gourmet cuisine, combining an unrelenting creativity and a remarkable level of craftsmanship with an inimitable and innate knowledge of the produce of his Nordic terroir. At Noma, which Redzepi created from a derelict eighteenth-century warehouse in 2003 after previously working at both elBulli and The French Laundry, diners are served exquisite concoctions, such as 'Newly-Ploughed Potato Field' or 'The snowman from Jukkasjarvi', all painstakingly constructed to express their amazing array of Nordic ingredients.

When Julia Child told Dorie Greenspan, "You write recipes just the way I do," she paid her the ultimate compliment. Julia'''s praise was echoed by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, which referred to Dorie's "wonderfully encouraging voice" and "the sense of a real person who is there to help should you stumble." Now in a big, personal, and personable book, Dorie captures all the excitement of French home cooking, sharing disarmingly simple dishes she has gathered over years of living in France.

Thai Street Food transports readers straight into the bustling heart of Thailand's colorful street stalls and markets--from the predawn rounds of monks fanning out along the aisles to the made-to-order stalls ablaze in neon and jammed with hungry locals after dark. Featuring nearly 100 authentic dishes plus lavish photography accompanying every recipe, this stunning cookbook is the definitive guide to Thailand's culinary street culture. The recipes, such as Steamed Fish with Chilli and Lime Sauce, Pork Satay, Roast Duck and Egg Noodle Soup, and Sweet Banana Roti illuminate the beguiling world of food so integral to the Thais.

Based on his popular PBS TV program Avec Eric, this book follows culinary superstar Eric Ripert as he explores the culture and culinary traditions of regions around the world, then returns to his home kitchen to create dishes celebrating the bounty of each one. Mirroring the show's sense of adventure and deep appreciation for fresh, local, seasonal ingredients, this book is part travelogue, part cookbook, with 125 fresh, exciting recipes drawn from Ripert's journey through the culinary landscapes of regions from Tuscany to Sonoma to the Hudson River Valley. Food and travel photos throughout reflect Ripert's journey and highlight the inspirations behind each dish, while handwritten notes and hand-drawn illustrations give the book a uniquely personal feel.

With our world so storm-tossed and rudderless, this might just be the book for our times. Sun-drenched Tuscany is synonymous with the ideal life. But it didn't happen by chance. Since the Etruscans, the Tuscans have treated their breathtaking countryside with sagacious respect and, in hamlets and hill towns, have built a culture of simplicity, beauty, neighborliness, good food, and a love of daily life.

The incredible diversity in American cooking was a real revelation to me. So although I went looking for "quintessential American food," my conclusion is that there is no such thing; instead there's a huge wealth of seriously exciting dishes. Many of us outside of America may think we already know all there is to know about it from movies or the occasional holiday, but the truth is that this doesn't even scratch the surface. In many ways, the country is still a bit of a mystery to us. This trip was my chance to explore the ingredients, food culture, and traditions within this incredible country.

With Steak with Friends, celebrated chef and noted cookbook author Rick Tramonto personally invites readers into his home to share a dazzling array of 150 steak and seafood recipes with all the trimmings. In this cookbook, Rick places special emphasis on choosing and preparing steaks, and provides beef and temperature charts, drink recipes, and even suggestions for what music to play while you cook. These sophisticated yet simple-to-prepare recipes show home cooks how to reproduce the flavors and great steakhouse food from Rick's steak and seafood restaurants in the Chicago area.

In this newly updated Second Edition, Calagione offers a deeper real-world look at entrepreneurship and what it takes to operate and grow a successful business. In several new chapters, he discusses Dogfish's most innovative marketing ideas, including how social media has become an integral part of the business model and how other small businesses can use it to catch up with bigger competitors. Calagione also presents a compelling argument for choosing to keep his business small and artisanal, despite growing demand for his products.

This sumptuously photographed guide to cooking all things Italian in the home kitchen will win over both beginning and experienced cooks with authentic and inventive recipes and step-by-step guidance from the experts at the CIA. Covering a variety of dishes from snacks, pickles, and preserves to pasta, meat, fish, and dessert, Italian Cooking is the perfect primer for fresh and flavorful Italian cuisine. With rustic focaccias, long-simmered soups, and entr�es with aromatic herbs, these vivid recipes are irresistible. Wine suggestions and mouthwatering photographs accompany the recipes.

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.
 

In Bocca, Kenedy brings his own brand of Italian regional cooking out of the restaurant and into the home. Kenedy's cooking is simple and delicious, covering the full range of regional specialties: Tuscan porcini soup, Venetian tagliatelle with pigeon ragu, Lazian asparagus and prawn frittata, Sicilian fried mullet, and Neapolitan coffee with zabaione. Organized by food group (pasta, soups, stews, roasts, etc.), with over 200 recipes, this book has been designed by the renowned Caz Hildebrand, best known for her work on Nigella Lawson's books. It includes 250 sumptuous photographs of Italy and Kenedy's delectable dishes.

Representing its most thorough revision ever, the Betty Crocker Cookbook, 11th Edition includes hundreds of new recipes, three new chapters, and icons that showcase how we cook today's faster, healthier, and with many more flavors.  New features celebrate the book's expertise and heritage with repertoire-building recipe lessons and fresh twists on American classics. With nearly 1,100 gorgeous new photos and 1,500 recipes, as well as invaluable cooking guidance, The Big Red Cookbook is better and more comprehensive than ever before.

In The Art of Living According to Joe Beef, co-owners/chefs Frederic Morin and David McMillan, along with writer and former Joe Beef staff member Meredith Erickson, present 135 unforgettable recipes showcasing Joe Beef's unconventional approach to French market cuisine. Advocating the use of ingredients from local or family-owned producers whenever possible, this collection of hearty dishes delivers. The Strip Loin Steak comes complete with ten variations, Kale for a Hangover wisely advises the cook to eat and then go to bed, and the Marjolaine includes tips for welding your own cake mold. Joe Beef's most popular dishes are also represented, such as Spaghetti Homard-Lobster, Foie Gras Breakfast Sandwich, Pork Fish Sticks, and Pojarsky de Veau (a big, moist meatball served on a bone). The coup de grace is the Smorgasbord Joe Bee's version of a Scandinavian open-faced sandwich with thirty different toppings.

Knowing what to feed children is one thing. Getting them to eat it is quite another!
In Food Fights, 2nd edition, the authors tastefully blend the science of nutrition and pediatrics with the practical insights of parents who have been in your shoes―offering simple solutions for your daily nutritional challenges. Whether you've got an infant, toddler, or young child, Food Fights promises entertaining, reality-based advice.

Acclaimed cultural historian Josh Ozersky defines the American Dream as being able to transcend your roots and create yourself as you see fit. Harland Sanders did exactly that. Forced at age ten to go to work to help support his widowed mother and sisters, he failed at job after job until he went into business for himself as a gas station/caf motel owner and finally achieved a comfortable, middle-class life. But then the interstate bypassed his business and, at sixty-five, Sanders went broke again. Packing his car with a pressure cooker and his secret blend of eleven herbs and spices, he began peddling the recipe for "Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken" to small-town diners in exchange for a nickel for each chicken they sold. Ozersky traces the rise of Kentucky Fried Chicken from this unlikely beginning, telling the dramatic story of Sanders' self-transformation into "The Colonel," his truculent relationship with KFC management as their often-disregarded goodwill ambassador, and his equally turbulent afterlife as the world's most recognizable commercial icon.