The Food52 Cookbook

Starred review from October 3, 2011
While working on The Essential New York Times Cookbook, Hesser (Cooking for Mr. Latte) and Stubbs realized that some of the best recipes come from home cooks, and launched food52.comâa site that encourages home cooks to share recipes and tips. Each week, they challenged visitors to come up with a recipe based on a certain theme or ingredient: best shrimp recipe, best holiday cookies, best baked pasta dish, and so forth. Here, they collect a year's worth of those recipes, accompanied by comments from fellow foodies, as well as tips and trivia. Grouped by season, Hesser and Stubbs highlight each week's winning recipe, including the story behind it, why it was picked, a short bio of the recipe's creator, and some encouraging words on why you should try the dish. Even readers with a shelf full of cookbooks will appreciate the book's broad, creative collection: from Pink Bolognese (a merging of the creamy vodka sauce with classic Bolognese), to a simple Ginger Sangria, to more ambitious fare, such as a stuffed manicotti with homemade pasta, DIY Merguez sausage, and a Caramelized Pork Báhn Mì sandwich. Cooks of all skill levels will find plenty of room to stretch.