The Essential James Beard Cookbook: 450 Recipes That Shaped the Tradition of American Cooking

The best recipes from one of America's most influential food personalities in a big, delicious cookbook that delights in every category.

Known as the Dean of American Cooking, James Beard set a standard of culinary excellence that's still a benchmark today. He was an early television presence who helped shape what America ate in restaurants and cooked at home, and was both an innovative recipe writer and a scholar of American foodways, preserving classic dishes from the past for his readers to cook in the present. Compiled from twelve of his classic books and freshened for a modern audience, The Essential James Beard will stand with definitive and lively cookbooks such as The New York Times Cookbook and The Joy of Cooking. It covers the best and most necessary recipes in every category:

• Appetizers and Hors d'oeuvres
• Soups
• Pastas and Noodles
• Fish and Shellfish
• Meat and Game
• Rice, Potatoes and Stuffings
• Breads
• Desserts
• and more

James Beard is why you are a foodie today. He was, with Julia Child, one of the two most influential chefs and food writers in America, championing both French cooking and the preservation and maintenance of great local food traditions to average home cooks. He was a prolific writer, producing twenty-one books, including James Beard's American Cookery and countless magazine articles; a tireless teacher; and early television personality and product promoter. The James Beard Foundation, which administers the industry's most influential awards and meaningful scholarships, was founded in his honor after his death in 1985 and is headquartered in his townhouse in New York City's Greenwich Village.