Music - Where Cooking Begins

Acknowledgments

It would be impossible to list all of the purveyors who make me look forward to shopping for food on a regular basis, but I can try: Amber Waves Farm, Balsam Farm Stand, Berried Treasures, Cornuco Farms, Fishkill Farms, Gosmans, Hot Bread Kitchen, Lanis Farm, Lucky Dog Farms, Marlow and Daughters, The Meat Hook, Migliorelli Farm, Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, Paisanos Butcher Shop, Rancho Gordo, Ronnybrook Dairy, S & SO Produce Farms, Silamar Farms, She Wolf Bakery, Stokes Farm, Stuart Seafood Market, Toigo Orchards, and Wilklow Farms. They sell me the ingredients that inspire me to go home and cook for the people I love, which is my favorite thing to do.

To the thousands of cooks and eaters who follow me on Instagram and listen to the Bon Apptit fopodcast and watch my YouTube videos and send me questions and compliments and pictures of how my recipes turn out for them at home: Knowing that you trust my advice gave me a reason to write this book. Thank you.

To Adam Rapoport, who has con-sistently encouraged me to fight for the things I am passionate about and who told me to write the way I talk, which is the single best edit note Ive ever gotten.

To the unparalleled group of food editors Ive been honored to work with at Bon Apptit: Andy Baraghani, Molly Baz, Yekaterina (Kat) Boytsova, Brad Leone, Rick Martinez, Gaby Mlian, Chris Morocco, Claire Saffitz, and Anna Stockwell. You are the best in the business, and your collaborative creative process is a constant reminder that culinary knowledge is meant to be shared.

To Liesel Davis, the best recipe editor on planet earth, whose precision guided me when I was struggling to find the right words for my recipe instructions. And to Jill Baughman, a model of patience and steadiness.

To Julia Kramer, one of the great humans. You are a loyal confidante, solid comrade, and beloved friend, and you inspire me to be a better person, mostly because I want you to keep liking me.

To Christine Muhlke, for breaking bread with me for years, for listening and having my back, for being a connector, especially for women, and for knowing me well enough to know I should talk to Katherine Cowles.

And to Kitty, who is not only a book agent, but my agent of change, and who zeroed in on the crux of this book before I could even articulate it. Partnering with you was one of the best decisions Ive ever made.

Thank you to Doris Cooper for finding scallion graveyards relatable and laughing at my dorky jokes, and most important for making a home for me at Clarkson Potter. Start to finish, I have felt completely tucked under your wing. You're good, you.

Potters Erica Gelbard makes me feel like a burger that is about to get dressed with special sauce. Your enthusiasm is infectiousIll do whatever you say.

To my beloved friends who encouraged and supported me and didnt get mad when they didnt hear from me for weeks and months on end: Leslie Robarge and Jon Feldman, Colu Henry, Vanessa Holden and Simon Andrews, Pat and Anne Keane, Chandra Kelemen, Delia and Pond Kelemen, Harry Lee, Jenn McCormick Panawek, Ruthie Vexler and Stu Zickerman, and Mary Wigmore.

And to my West Coast fam: Henrietta, Leilani, Roz, Sam, and Harvey Music, for rooting for me.

To Stephen Kelemen, the most expressive, passionate, inventive, intuitive, welcoming, hilarious, stylish home cook and baker in all the land. Being fed by you is the best.

To Bill Loscher and his family for trusting our family with the house on Fort Lane. I never slept or ate as well as I did during the summers we spent under that little roof. The recipes on belong to Billsville.

To Grace Robinson-Leo and Robert Matthews, the brilliant designers at Decade, for turning my awkwardly expressed ideas into a tangible, beautiful thing that looks and feels exactly the way I hoped, even though I could never have described it. Your design sensibility, amazing sense of style, and willingness to take risks motivated me throughout this process. The support and guidance of Melanie Glass made every step run smoothly.

To the incredible Andrea Gentl and Martin Hyers: Watching you at work made me realize what it means to be an expert. Thank you for making every shoot day feel like magic. And to the unflappable Francesca Crichtonwe needed a Frankie in the house.

To Susie Theodorou, who is amazing at making food look amazing, but also smart as hell, as honest as she is generous, and a brilliant f*cking cook. Thank you for taking me on.

To Lorenzo Music, whose spirit was with me when I sat down in front of a microphone for the very first time and realized I had something to say.

To Nina Lalli, ceramicist, sister, and retired prop stylist. You must have figured out by now that I needed you not only for the purple, pink, and green objects that made us both happy, but because you made me feel safe, grounded, and loved. I would have totally failed at this without you. Plus: Ruffles!

To Frank Lalli, my father and mentor, a man of inexhaustible determination, stubbornness, iron-clad work ethic, innate confidence, and questionable puns. Thank you for giving us a million great reasons to drink all of the wine.

To my mom, Carole Lalli, for being a bottomless source of information, advice, patience, and proper punctuation. But more importantly, for showing me what having a career, a family, and a life surrounded by true friends looks like, and for inspiring me to try to achieve at the same level.

To Leo, my savory breakfast eater and fearless cook, thank you for being my most honest recipe taster, and for loving kimchi as much as I do. And to Cosmo, for teaching me that a person can really love food without necessarily liking every food, and that we should all just eat more of the things we like.

But most of all to my Fernando, for being the single greatest support, source of love, and anchor in my life. Our being together made it possible for me to do a big thing on my own. I cannot imagine going through this time on earth without you as my partner in all things, and I wouldnt want to, either.

Ive Had a Lot of Lives as a Cook

I grew up in a house with a mother who was (and is) an amazing cook, and I didnt start making my own meals until I left for college and realized that if I wanted to eat well, I needed to try to cook like she did.

I became a restaurant line cook in my twenties and made dishes that were beautiful and special but that no sane person would ever prepare at home. Thats when I learned the mechanics of cooking and came to understand the direct relationship between the perfectness of an ingredient and the specialness of the finished dish.

Ive spent the better part of a decade creating recipes and writing about food for Bon Apptit magazine and have been lucky enough to spend my days with passionate colleagues, working on how to share our obsessions with as many people as will listen.

But this book is about my life as a home cook. Its inspired by the meals I cook for my family and friends, the joy I take in feeding them, and its filled with our favorite things to eat. Its also where Im sharing my pared-back approach to shopping, planning, and meal-prepping for the first time. This very personal strategy for getting food into the house and then into our bellies has made me the happiest, most successful cook Ive ever been, and in the pages that follow, Ill spell all that out for you.

If you get this far and skip ahead to the techniques, great. If you flip ahead even further and dive right into the recipes, I think thats awesome. If you look at the pretty pictures and give this book to a friend who you can convince to cook for you, bravo. And if you want to know where Im going without having to do very much of anything, here it is in a nutshell: