Cook It Up: Bold Moves for Family Foods

Iron Chef star Guarnaschelli (Cook with Me) and debut author Clark, her 15-year-old daughter, collaborate on this bighearted and wide-ranging collection of their favorite family recipes. “Whereas I learned to cook in school,” Guarnaschelli writes, “Ava just cooks—always with curiosity and with so much confidence.” While not limiting itself to a readership of young chefs, the collection is partly designed to inspire other teenagers to follow suit. The recipes in each section are arranged from least to most challenging, accumulating cooking techniques along the way. The breakfast chapter, for example, starts with tortillas and scrambled eggs (a recipe from Ava, inspired by a TikTok video), then offers instructions for perfect poached eggs (tip: add apple cider vinegar to the water) and quiche, while the chapter on pasta opens with 10-minute buttery egg noodles and ends with pasta carbonara. Seafood dishes encourage cooks to practice their knife skills with tuna carpaccio (but first with tomatoes) while the section on meat includes a whole roasted chicken with potatoes (“My mom says this chicken tastes like being in Paris (eye roll),” writes Ava.) Family influences are clear throughout—the burger with onion jam and thousand island dressing, for example, has “at least two generations of Guarnaschellis behind it”—and add a cozy, genuine feeling to the proceedings. Chefs of all ages will be inspired. (Sept.)