Home Cooking with Jean-Georges: My Favorite Simple Recipes: A Cookbook

Some of the Best Food Youand#8217;ll Never Eat in a Restaurant

Danny Meyerand#8217;s restaurants are among the most acclaimed and beloved in the nation: Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Maialino, Blue Smoke, The Modern, and more, winners of an unprecedented number of James Beard Awards for outstanding food and hospitality. Family Table takes you behind the scenes of these restaurants to share the food that the chefs make for one another before they cook for you.

Each day, before the lunch and dinner services, the staff sits down to a and#8220;family meal.and#8221; It is simple, often improvised, but special enough to please the chefsand#8217; discerning palates. Now, for the first time, the restaurantsand#8217; culinary director, Michael Romano, coauthor of the award-winning Union Square Cafe Cookbook, collects and refines his favorite in-house dishes for the home cook, served alongside Karen Stabinerand#8217;s stories about the restaurantsand#8217; often-unsung heroes, and about how this imaginative array of dishes came to be. Their collaboration celebrates food, the family itself, and the restaurantsand#8217; rich backstage life.

Some of the recipes are global and regional specialties: Mama Romanoand#8217;s Lasagna, Dominican Chicken, Thai Beef, Layered Huevos Rancheros, and Southern Cola-Braised Short Ribs. Many highlight fresh produce, like Michael Anthonyand#8217;s Corn Soup, Barley and Spring Vegetables with Pesto, Grilled Halibut with Cherry Tomatoes, Sugar Snap Peas and Lemon, and Plum and Apricot Crisp with Almond Cream. There are homey dishes like Turkey and Vegetable Potpie with Biscuit Crust and Streusel-Swirl Coffee Cake, and inventive, contemporary takes, like Cornmeal-Crusted Fish Tacos with Black Bean and Peach Salsa and a delightfully tangy Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Rhubarb-Strawberry Compote. What all these recipes have in common is ease and perfection.

Family Table is an invitation from the restaurant family to you: Please join in.

"This is a terrific book, full of exactly the kinds of recipes I want from a master chef. There's no special equipment, no exotic ingredients, no long, elaborate preparations. Instead, there are creative, practical dishes that are well within the technical grasp of almost any cook." Los Angeles Times

"Part haute cuisine, part comfort food, dinners that chefs whip up for their kitchen- and waitstaffs before the eveningand#8217;s guests pile in serve as an object lesson in thoughtful meal planning."

and#8212;Booklist

"Before restaurant chefs cook for you, we cook for ourselves. What we prepare for our fellow chefs and staff is every bit as important to us as what we make for guests when the dinner service starts. With this wonderful book devoted to the meals he makes for his own restaurant family, Michael Romano gives us an intimate look at the dishes that are closest to his heart: food that is personal, generous, and nurturing. Family Table isnand#185;t just a source of delicious dishes. Itand#185;s a beautiful reminder of what cooking and eating are all about." and#8212;Thomas Keller and#8220;Danny Meyer, Michael Romano, and the kitchen team at Union Square Hospitality are redefining hospitality daily at their roster of superior restaurants. This behind-the-scenes look at Michaeland#8217;s genius operation offers the dishes youand#8217;ll never experience on the restaurant floor. Itand#8217;s the food the chefs cook for each other, which of course we all want to eat too!and#8221; and#8212;Mario Batali and#160; "I always say to my team, and#8216;Cook the staff meal with the same care as if you were going to serve it to your mother.and#8217; The stories and recipes in this book really encapsulate the passion that chefs should show while preparing their and#8216;familyand#8217;sand#8217; meals." and#8212;Daniel Boulud and#160; "Family Table gets the mouth watering at first read: Here are recipes that are approachable but blessed with little twists and turns to pique the palate." and#8212;Cooking Light

Join one of the world’s greatest chefs in his most personal book yet, as Jean-Georges Vongerichten shares his favorite casual recipes in Home Cooking with Jean-Georges.

Though he helms a worldwide restaurant empire — with locations in New York, Las Vegas, London, Paris, and Shanghai — Jean-Georges counts his greatest joy in life as family first, then food. In Home Cooking with Jean-Georges, he brings readers into his weekend home, where he cooks simple, delicious dishes that leave him plenty of time to enjoy the company of friends and loved ones.

A few years ago, Jean-Georges decided to give himself a gift that most of us take for granted: two-day weekends. He and his wife, Marja, and their family retreat to their country home in Waccabuc, New York. There, the renowned chef produces the masterful, fresh flavors for which he is known — but with little effort and few dishes to clean at the end. These quick, seasonal, Vongerichten-family favorites include: Crab Toasts with Sriracha Mayonnaise, Watermelon and Blue Cheese Salad, Herbed Sea Bass and Potatoes in Broth, Lamb Chops with Smoked Chile Glaze and Warm Fava Beans, Parmesan-Crusted Chicken, Fresh Corn Pudding Cake, Tarte Tatin, and Buttermilk Pancakes with Warm Berry Syrup.

With 100 recipes and 100 color photographs — all taken at his country house — Home Cooking with Jean-Georges will inspire home cooks with fantastic accessible dishes to add to their repertoires.

The best staff meals from Danny Meyerand#8217;sand#160;acclaimed restaurantsand#8212;Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Maiolino,and#160;Eleven Madison Park, The Modern, Blue Smoke, Untitled at The Whitney, and moreand#8212;simple enough for any home cook's weeknight dinners, delicious enough for the most discriminating palates.

Michael Romano is the culinary director for the Union Square Hospitality Group and co-owner of Union Square Cafe, which won a James Beard Award under his direction.andnbsp;With Danny Meyer, he wrote the James Beard Award-winning Union Square Cafe Cookbook and Second Helpings from Union Square Cafe. He was inducted into Beard Foundation's Who's Who of Food and Beverage.

Karen Stabiner is an adjunct professor at Columbia's graduate school of journalism. Her work has appeared in Saveur, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, and Travel and Leisure. She is theandnbsp;co-author ofandnbsp;The Valentino Cookbook.

Considered by the New York Times to be "the greatest restaurateur Manhattan has ever seen," Danny Meyer is CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group. His restaurants have won an unprecedented twenty-one James Beard Awards. His book, Setting the Table, was a New York Times bestseller.