Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking

Danielle Alvarez is an acclaimed restaurant chef, but Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking is dedicated to her favourite way of cooking: at home, for and with friends and family.

This fully photographed and illustrated hardback, featuring over 110 recipes and a ribbon marker, draws on Danielle's love of Italian and French food, her Cuban roots, time spent cooking in California and then in Australia, and all the incredible Asian influences that have coloured her time in Sydney.

The recipes are eclectic because her interests in flavour are diverse. We are so lucky to live in a world where one night we might be cooking something Indian, then next something Italian and then something Australian. Danielle celebrates this luxury, then applies the essential principles of respecting where food comes from and preparing it with care and attention.

Wherever you live, if you have a basic grocery store, you can adopt and enjoy the 100-plus recipes in this book. Every idea - from easy weeknight meals such as a Zucchini frittata or a hearty Cavolo nero and anchovy risotto, to more elaborate weekend projects like Bolognese with homemade Tagliatelle or a Sweet and sour cumin lamb shoulder, to gorgeous desserts such as Plum galette with a fennel crème anglaise - is designed to help you find happiness in your kitchen with the best that is available to you, and according to the ebbs and flows of your mood, budget, and tastes.

A lifetime of beautiful home cooking starts here.


About the Author

Danielle Alvarez is a Cuban-American chef and cook who has built a home in Sydney, Australia, and a reputation as founding head chef at the acclaimed Merivale restaurant Fred's, in Paddington. The food of Fred's is home comfort executed with hospitality pro flair and key to the Alvarez magic is the seamless way she traverses these two worlds. Home cooks are drawn to her because her love language is glorious, fresh, seasonal ingredients, minimal intervention and maximum taste, and it is communicated with a compelling you-can-cook-like-me warmth.

Libby Travers is an author, food writer and food commentator who has worked alongside some of the best chefs, producers and wholesalers for more than two decades. Her interest in food particularly focuses on its place in a country's culture and customs - with a soft spot for all things French. Fortunate to have three wonderful locations jostling for the title "home", she continues the search for good food, wine and bonheur between Provence, Crete and Australia.