Jacques Pépin Cooking My Way: Recipes and Techniques for Economical Cooking

Legendary chef Pépin (Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken) dishes up valuable advice for saving time, money, and effort in the kitchen. Special attention is given to repurposing leftovers, with Pépin noting that reserving them “in their original form” is a “common mistake.” Instead, leftover French bread serves as croutons for garlicky romaine salad; leftover roasted pork is incorporated into pork and potato hash; and any jams or jellies that are sitting in the fridge make a perfect base for rhubarb compote with sour cream. Pépin also emphasizes using up all parts of each ingredient whenever possible: he boils shrimp shells in stock to create a more flavorful shrimp bisque and cooks poultry skin to use as a crispy topping for escarole salad. Encouraging readers to use whatever they already have on hand instead of taking “a special trip to the market” for missing ingredients, Pépin offers plenty of helpful substitution suggestions: any type of dried beans will work in the bean and bacon salad and virtually any fish filet or steak can be used for the grilled cod with olives. Complete with Pépin’s own whimsical paintings, this handy resource demonstrates that efficiency doesn’t have to mean sacrificing flavor. Agent: Doe Coover, Doe Coover Agency. (Sept.)