Mark Bittman - How to Cook Everything—Simple Recipes for Great Food

My first reflex is to say that it feels impossible that I started working on How to Cook Everything in late 1994. In fact, like so many things in the past, its both in a vivid way very like yesterday and in a vague, dreamy way like another lifetime, another persons life. Im closing in on seventy, but then I was forty-four, and things were going well: My first book, Fish, at that point a twelve-year-old dream come true, had won a couple of awards; I was writing regularly for the Times, soon to become a columnist; I had agreed to write a book with Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

So it was one of those rare periods where both personally and professionally all was pretty much as I wanted it to be. And then this book came alongnot my idea!the biggest professional challenge imaginable. The idea was to rival Joy of Cooking and, other than that notion, there was no real plan. My thinking, such as it was, was to try to communicate in plain language everything I had learned how to cook up until then (Id been cooking for twenty-five years at that point, so there was at least a foundation of sorts), while filling in whatever blanks there were (and there were plenty) with the help of friends and colleagues and mentors.

I was luckyblessedenough to have many of all of those, starting with my (now former) wife, Karen Baar; our children, Kate and Emma, who were girls then and are women now; my agent, Angela Miller; and a thankfully large number of people to whom I remain close, too many to start naming.

But naturally, twenty-five years later, the world, the book, and I have all changed, as have many of the people I hang with and rely on. Still, what was true then I say even more emphatically today: My gratitude extends to hundreds of peoplechefs, cookbook writers, editors at all kinds of publications, publishers, producers, friends, relatives, casual acquaintanceswho have shared a technique or dish, a kind or insightful word, an idea, an inspiration, and help and affection and thoughtfulness and at times even love. There are more of you to thank in less space than with the first edition. Please know that I appreciate everyone who has been generous with me throughout this journey.

Singling out people is difficult, but on this project its important for me to acknowledge especially Daniel Meyer, Emily Stephenson, Mirella Blum, food stylist Victoria Granof and her team (Krystal Rack-Carter, Liza Meyers, Veronica Martinez, and Kristen Stangl), prop stylist Philippa Brathwaite (with help from Ryan Bourquin), photo tech Martyna Szczesna, and both Mark Kelly from Lodge and the folks at Workshop Studio. Aya Brackett, whom I love, is responsible for the amazing photography you see here; she is a star.

At my longtime publisher, Im grateful to editor Stephanie Fletcher, who was fatefully and way more than symbolically (though I love the symbolism) helped through a few turns by the books first editor, Pam Hoenig. Many thanks to Bruce Nichols and Deb Brody, as well as Marina Padakis Lowry, Melissa Lotfy, Toni Tajima, and Sari Kamin.

Somehow, Kerri Conan was not with me for the first edition of this book (and yet it got done!); shes been my right hand (well, left, really, cause for me thats more important) on every cookbook since, and corny as it is, Ill never be able to thank her enough. Theres no aspect of this book that doesnt bear her mark.

As for love: Kat, Kateets, Buv, my boys Nick, Jeff, Holden... theres just nothing to say. Lets see what happens when this book turns fifty!

Mark Bittman
Glynwood, Spring 2019

When How to Cook Everything came out more than two decades ago, friends and colleagues teased me about the promise of everything in the title. The publisher and I stood by the hyperbole, knowing that by offering instruction on core techniques and common ingredients, including hundreds of variations, and demonstrating how to make substitutions... the title was barely an exaggeration.

In the following years, I used the teaching of these skills and strategies to create a series that now includes How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (two editions!),