Straight from the pages of Fine Cooking magazine! You'll find everything youll need to know to cook todays fresh, contemporary, and great-tasting food for family and friends. Cooking New American is an award winning private tutorial in preparing the kind of food that Americans truly love to eat. It offers meat and potatoes, though not the typical versions, and it includes the pastas, polentas, and risottos that are so exciting now.

With recipes by many of Americas greatest chefs, the book features fresh, delicious ingredients simply prepared, with all the tips and techniques to successfully prepare todays favorite foods.

In the tradition of Fine Cooking magazine, step-by-step color photographs show exactly how to prepare foolproof party fare and fast and flavorful home dinners. Recipes are accompanied by time-saving tips as well as ideas for cooking ahead and serving suggestions.

Among the chefs who have contributed to this book:
Bruce Aidells * Pam Anderson * John Ash * Gale Gand * Joyce Goldstein * Gordon Hamersley * Caprial Pence * Mai Pham * Leslie Revsin * Norman Van Aken * Paula Wolfert * Alice Waters * Carolyn Weil * Joanne Weir * Anne Willan

...a cookbook filled with recipes that are pure, fresh, simple, and -- most importantly -- instructional. Hats off to Taunton for yet another creative culinary triumph!

-- Joanne Weir

Introduction

Small Bites

Salads

Soups

Pasta

Chicken

Beef, Pork & Lamb

Fish & Shellfish

Beans & Grain

Vegetables

Desserts

Contributors

Index

Over the ten years that weve published Fine Cooking magazine, weve had the privilege of working with the best cooks in America: top-notch chefs, cooking teachers, cookbook authors -- experts who have shared their talent and fresh vision with our readership of passionate cooks. Weve published thousands of their recipes and techniques, from which weve distilled this collection called Cooking New American.

Why new American and why this topic for our first book from Fine Cooking? Because we feel the recipes in this book are a perfect reflection of the way good home cooks like to cook today. This is a book youll pick up over and over, whether youre looking for a quick answer to whats for dinner tonight? or you want to dream about what to serve at your next party.

By new, we dont mean trendy, but rather fresh and contemporary, recipes for the kind of food you enjoy cooking and serving your family and friends. Youll find updated versions of American classics, simpler takes on international favorites, exciting dishes that incorporate bold ingredients, like those weve borrowed from Italy but that are now so much a part of American cooking -- balsamic vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, and good imported parmesan, for example. And new American also embraces the seasonal vegetables, fruit, and herbs that we love to cook with, and of course the cooking methods that deliver a lot of flavor fast, like sauteing and grilling.

Recipes are just half the story, however. From all our talented authors, weve learned the tricks and techniques that make the difference between a good dish and a great one, and weve woven that highly useful information throughout this book, with how-to photos, tip boxes, and lots of advice on working ahead, handling ingredients, and creating your own variations of recipes.

I know that my own copy of this book will soon be happily worn because, even though I have every issue of Fine Cooking magazine, I can find so many of the dishes I like to cook for my own friends and family together in Cooking New American. I think youll use your copy in the same way, as a great resource to make all your cooking successful and delicious.

-- Martha Holmberg
publisher and editor in chief, Fine Cooking magazine