Alice Waters has been a champion of the sustainable, local cooking movement for decades. To Alice, good food is a right, not a privilege. In the Green Kitchen presents her essential cooking techniques to be learned by heart plus more than 50 recipes-for delicious fresh, local, and seasonal meals-from Alice and her friends. She demystifies the basics including steaming a vegetable, dressing a salad, simmering stock, filleting a fish, roasting a chicken, and making bread. An indispensable cookbook, she gives you everything you need to bring out the truest flavor that the best ingredients of the season have to offer.

In The Flexitarian Table, the award winning author Peter Berley presents menus that are flexible, exciting, relaxing to prepare -- and that make everyone feel welcome. With The Flexitarian Table, you'll no longer treat vegetarians as afterthoughts by offering them a couple of scanty side dishes, and you'll be able to indulge meat eaters at the same time with abundant, satisfying dishes.

You'll learn how to prepare vegetarian and meat versions simultaneously without going to any extra trouble. Roast a succulent, crisp chicken with lemon and thyme -- and make a tofu version in just minutes. Put some meaty portobello mushroom caps on the grill and, for the carnivore contingent, throw on a steak, then pair them both with a zesty bread crumb salsa. Simmer white beans with carrot and celery and saute some shrimp, drizzling each with the same rich brown butter sauce with fresh herbs.

In The Art of Simple Food, Waters offers 200-plus recipes for basics like polenta, ratatouille and beef stew. Other simple but savory dishes include Spicy Cauliflower Soup, Fava Bean Pure, and Braised Chicken Legs, as well as dessert formulas for the likes of Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp and Tangerine Ice. In addition, readers learn (or become reacquainted with) the Waters mantra: eat locally and sustainably; eat seasonally; shop at farmers markets.

Organized largely by techniques, the book is a lovely primer, designed to free readers from recipe reliance.

First published in the United Kingdom in 2001, THE RIVER COTTAGE COOKBOOK quickly became a hit among food cognoscenti around the world. Now tailored for American cooks, this authoritative and animated ode to eating well is one part manifesto and one part guidebook for choosing and storing food grown in the garden, butchered from prize animals, or foraged or caught locally. Fearnley-Whittingstall writes with humor, wit, and clarity, bringing American readers what his legions of British fans have enthusiastically embraced: the best techniques and recipes for getting the most out of simple, superior food, while supporting the environment, vibrant local economies, and resourceful use of plants and animals.