After the Second World War, a newly affluent United States reached for its own gourmet culture, one at ease with the French international style of Escoffier, but also distinctly American. Enter James Beard, authority on cooking and eating, his larger-than-life presence and collection of whimsical bow ties were synonymous with the nation's food for decades, even after his death in 1985. In the first biography of Beard in twenty-five years, acclaimed writer John Birdsall argues that Beard's struggles as a closeted gay man directly influenced his creation of an American cuisine. Starting in the 1920s, Beard escaped loneliness and banishment by travelling abroad to places where people ate for pleasure, not utility, and found acceptance at home by crafting an American ethos of food likewise built on passion and delight. Informed by never-before-tapped correspondence and lush with details of a golden age of home cooking, The Man Who Ate Too Much is a commanding portrait of a towering figure who still represents the best in food.

Widely hailed as one of the most influential cookbooks of all time, this is the timeless classic guide to culinary creativity and flavor exploration, based on the wisdom of the world's most innovative chefs

Eight years in the making, The Flavor Bible is a landmark book that has inspired the greatest creations of innovative cooks and chefs by serving as an indispensable guide to creativity and flavor affinities in today's kitchen.

Cuisine is undergoing a startling historic transformation: With the advent of the global availability of ingredients, dishes are no longer based on geography but on flavor. This radical shift calls for a new approach to cooking -- as well as a new genre of "cookbook" that serves not to document classic dishes via recipes, but to inspire the creation of new ones based on imaginative and harmonious flavor combinations.

The Flavor Bible is your guide to hundreds of ingredients along with the herbs, spices, and other seasonings that will allow you to coax the greatest possible flavor and pleasure from them. This astonishing reference distills the combined experience of dozens of America's most innovative culinarians, representing such celebrated and transformative restaurants as A Voce, Blue Hill, Café Atlántico, Chanterelle, Citronelle, Gramercy Tavern, the Herbfarm, Jardinière, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, the Modern, and the Trellis.

You'll learn to:

• explore the roles played by the four basic tastes -- salty, sour, bitter, and sweet -- and how to bring them into harmony;
• work more intuitively and effectively with ingredients by discovering which flavors have the strongest affinities for one another;
• brighten flavors through the use of acids -- from vinegars to citrus juices to herbs and spices such as Makrut lime and sumac;
• deepen or intensify flavors through layering specific ingredients and techniques;
• and balance the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of cooking and serving an extraordinary meal.

Seasoned with tips, anecdotes, and signature dishes from the country's most respected chefs and pastry chefs, The Flavor Bible is an essential book for every kitchen library.

This new essential guide to entertaining is divided by occasion, offering a fresh lineup of menus and ideas from Oxford, Mississippi's go-to caterer for every celebratory scenario life serves up. In this update to the best-selling book of our mothers' and grandmothers' era, Elizabeth's tell-it-like-it-is voice provides a twist to the classic Southern advice that is a refresher for entertainers of any age or experience. Packed with delicious recipes from the original book like Smoked Salmon Canapes, Hot Cheese Squares, and Brandy Alexanders, the book also includes popular picks from the current pages of Southern Living as well as Elizabeth's treasured recipe box.

'A real and rare gem, this is the must-have book on Venice and its cooking' -Anna del Conte

Skye McAlpine, author of the successful blog, From My Dining Table, offers an insider's perspective on Venetian home cooking, illustrated with her stunning photographs.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists pass through the city of Venice each year, eat at trattorie, and leave having dined in Venice, but not having eaten well. It is the food cooked in homes and made with local ingredients, the recipes passed down through generations - which Venetians guard ferociously and exclusively for their own gratification - that is Venetian food. It is romantic and it is exotic. It dapples in spices, and delightfully foreign flavours. It's pine nuts and raisins, bay leaves and sweet vinegar, heady saffron and creamy mascarpone. It's a legacy of a maritime republic that once upon a time journeyed across the seas, gathering culinary gems from as far and wide as Turkey, Greece and China, and then over generations wove them into the city until they became the way of living and eating. For Skye it is the food of her childhood, laden with nostalgia, synonymous with comfort and the source of an endless fascination.

Some of the recipes in A Table in Venice are translated and barely adapted from the old Venetian cookbooks. Other dishes are more loosely inspired by Venice, by the ingredients, by the flavours, and by everyday life there. All of the recipes are typical of Skye's cooking style: simple, fresh, colourful and always plentiful, and offer a rare glimpse into the tastes and secrets of a true Venetian kitchen.

Is the butter plate on the right or the left? How should you introduce someone whose name you can't remember? What is the polite way to handle a guest who arrives early? Emily Post's Entertaining provides answers to these and many other questions that vex today's hosts and guests.

Emily Post's Entertaining is a practical guide to hosting with elegance and ease. Its goal is to give everyone the confidence to handle any get-together, from casual and cozy to formal and fancy. Among the wide range of events and entertaining quandaries Peggy Post addresses are: getting together for everything from a Super Bowl party to dinner with the boss; throwing children's birthday parties; giving a casual dinner with takeout food; making appropriate introductions; jump-start dinner conversation; choosing the right wine; and much more. Entertaining covers the basics of hosting, but most importantly, it reminds you that successful entertaining springs not from the good china and an elaborate table setting, but from the people you are with and the memorable time you spend together.

"The best hosts spin magic out of thin air, creating the kind of special occasion guests can't stop talking about."

From simple dinners and casual parties to formal business functions and catered events, Emily Post's Entertaining shows you how to be the perfect host. With Peggy Post's guidance, you can breeze through toasting your guest of honor and unflinchingly manage sticky social situations such as unanswered invitations and surprise guests. Emily Post's Entertaining helps you to entertain with elegance and ease, making every get-together a memorable event.