The premise of this book is a focus on what Reusing, an award-winning chef at Lantern in Chapel Hill, cooks at home for herself and her family, including recipes she’s borrowed or adapted from others. In this way, readers benefit from her culinary mind and training, without stumbling through the difficulty or inscrutability of a book that attempts to translate restaurant recipes for the home kitchen. 

The result is inventive and inspiring food that you can make without a lot of fuss (there are more elaborate recipes if you want those too), recipes that take the familiar and make it unexpected,...

There are so many fine cookbooks out there that inspire and instruct us on Italian cookery, whether delving into a regional specialty or providing modern, restaurant-style twists and updates. Yet, this cookbook is unique in its ability to use recipes, photos, and stories to forge a deep sense of connection in its readers to the women in the narrative and to the regional food of Italy. Although Cooking with Italian Grandmothers is not a comprehensive guide, there’s something compelling in Jessica Theroux’s personal, idiosyncratic choices. In short, I don’t know that I’ve encountered a cookbook that has ever moved me...