Your Starter Kitchen: The Definitive Beginner's Guide to Stocking, Organizing, and Cooking in Your Kitchen

by Lisa Chernick

Overview

Organize and set up your kitchen with this practical and easy-to-follow guide to kitchen gear and pantry essentials.

Kitchen gadgets. Spices. Pots and pans. It always seems you have either too much stuff in your kitchen—or not enough! How do you know what equipment and food items you really need, versus what you can safely do without? And how do you organize and store it all?

Your Starter Kitchen is a highly practical guide to how to equip, stock, and cook in your kitchen—without breaking the bank. Filled with information on what supplies you really need, and which you don’t, this book will help you declutter a busy kitchen, or stock up a new one if you’re just starting out on your own.

Learn how to:
-Use all the essential utensils everyone should have in their kitchen, from knives to Dutch ovens
-Determine which gadgets and high-end items you should splurge on—and which ones you shouldn’t
-Buy budget-friendly and healthy ingredients that have a long shelf life for the pantry
-Get creative with your kitchen storage and organization if you have limited space
-Start cooking and baking in your kitchen with simple and delicious recipes
-And so much more!

So, whether you have a college dorm kitchen, small or tiny house, or are moving into your forever home and want to pick up any cookbook with confidence, Your Starter Kitchen is the perfect book for you.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982139025
Publisher:	S&S/Simon Element
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,156,078
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Lisa Chernick is a native of Buffalo, New York, who fell for food and cooking while living in Italy. She studied at universities in both Rome and Siena, graduated from Boston University, and attended culinary school at NYC’s Institute of Culinary Education. Lisa has been a food writer and editor for more than twenty years; from Food Arts magazine, to the early days of Epicurious, and most recently at Weight Watchers’s website, magazine, and cookbooks. She has been a James Beard Book Awards judge for the past twelve years and a James Beard Award nominee herself for digital writing and editing. An avid home cook, Lisa shares her Hoboken, New Jersey, home with her husband, two fabulous teenage daughters, and an exceptional mini poodle.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

1 For a Small or First Kitchen

Must-Have Gear 3

Essential Pantry Items 27

Techniques and Primers 43

Recipes 51

Checklist 63

2 For a More Grown-up Kitchen

Additional Gear 71

Expand Your Pantry 83

Techniques and Primers 97

Recipes 103

Checklist 117

3 For a Large or Forever Home Kitchen

More Gear to Consider 127

Kids in the Kitchen 139

Techniques and Primers 147

Recipes 155

Checklist 167

Conclusion 173

Acknowledgments 175

Index 179

Editorial Reviews

"Lisa Chernick has written a timeless, user-friendly guide to the ins and outs of setting up a kitchen and starting to cook in it. Your Starter Kitchen gives beginners the gear, pantry staples, and cooking techniques they need to make first kitchens feel like home. Then it tells how to turn bigger kitchens into the warm heart of a home. Fifteen simple, foolproof recipes bring all the guidance and ideas to life. Your Starter Kitchen should be on every 'must-have' list for new grads, college kids, and anyone in a new home—and included in wedding registries and shower gifts!"
—Grace Young, author of Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge

"Finally someone has filled in the huge gap in most beginner cookbooks. Basic recipes are essential, of course, but a lot remains mysterious. Which pans should you use, and which knives? Which spices should you have on hand? Lisa Chernick has come to the rescue. Not only does she lay out the basic equipment and pantry ingredients, she also spells out how to upgrade your first apartment...and your second one, too. And right along she provides her unique and easy versions of essential recipes. Thank you, Lisa!"
—Sara Moulton, author of Sara Moulton's Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better

"Your Starter Kitchen is an essential primer on 'adulting.' Anyone who wants to take a step away from DoorDash and actually make the enticing food photos on Instagram absolutely needs this book. It’s an accessible guide on how-to equip and stock a new kitchen and includes a tight package of basic recipes to cook in it. Whether you are an absolute novice or a more seasoned cook, this book will help you stock, stack, and store what you need in your kitchen to sit down and sup."
—Virginia Willis, James Beard Award-Winning Cookbook Author and Chef

"A user-friendly guide to setting up a beginner kitchen and how to intelligently expand on existing kitchen formats.... The book’s publication months into a global shift in our foodways has made Your Starter Kitchen exceedingly relevant. Home cooks everywhere have had to confront the challenges presented by the pandemic—food acquisition, meal planning, cooking and baking without ready access to ingredients and tools. And along the way come to a new understanding of the deficiencies and perhaps overabundance of the kitchen. This is where Chernick’s book makes its mark."
—Houston Chronicle

From the Publisher