The Amateur Gourmet: How to Shop, Chop, and Table Hop Like a Pro (Almost)

As a self-taught chef and creator of The Amateur Gourmet website, Adam Roberts knows the challenges you face in bringing fresh, creative homemade meals to the table without burning down the house or bruising your self-esteem. But as he shows in this exciting new book, the effort is worth it and good eating doesnt have to be difficult. To prove his point, Roberts has assembled a five-star lineup of some of the food worlds most eminent authorities for your culinary education.

In this illuminating and hilarious “Kitchen 101,” Adam Roberts teaches you how to bring good food into your life. Learn the “Ten Commandments of Dining Out” courtesy of Ruth Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet magazine. Discover why the New York Timess Amanda Hesser urges you never to bring a grocery list to the market. Get knife lessons from a top sous-chef at Manhattans famous Union Square Cafe, and accompany the intrepid author as he dines alone at LAtelier de Joël Robuchon in Paris.

From how to chop an onion to how to cook a seven-course meal that dazzles your friends, Roberts shares the skills you need to overcome your food phobias, impress your parents, woo a date, and create sophisticated dishes with everyday ease.

Packed with recipes, menus plans, shopping tips, and anecdotes, The Amateur Gourmet provides you with all the ingredients for the foodie lifestyle. All you need is a healthy appetite and a taste for adventure!

"'Just a typical Jewish law student who returned to New York to study playwriting, Roberts forsook torts and all things dramaturgical for tarts and all things culinary. In order to better share his discoveries and enthusiasms, he eventually launched a Web site — amateurgourmet.com — replete with recipes, marketing and cooking tips, restaurant reviews and overall winsomeness. Here, in 10 short essays, and with the same charming voice, he offers simple (perhaps even simplistic) lessons from his own journey out of fast food and microwave captivity to the Promised Land of Foodiedom. From basic tomato sauce to a feast for 10, he guides the way through a series of culinary adventures and exhorts the kitchen novice toward the same discoveries, surprises and challenges. This is not really a cookbook or a memoir so much as a kitchen travelogue or series of essays on culinary attitude adjustment, and Roberts has such lightness of spirit that even proficient gourmands may be tempted to seek again the stance of a rank beginner in order to experience anew a perfectly cooked tomato sauce or dinner for one in Paris. There are recipes, mostly cribbed from other cookbooks, but the book's primary feature is its delight in learning something new.' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In this entertaining guide to cooking, shopping, and dining out, "The Amateur Gourmet" takes readers on an illuminating and hilarious journey into the world of food appreciation and offers master classes from culinary superstars.

Adam D. Roberts has a JD from Emory University Law School and an MFA in dramatic writing from NYUs Tisch School of the Arts. His website, www.amateurgourmet.com, was named one of the Best Sites on the Web by PC magazine. He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is currently working on a novel.