Toast: The Cookbook

The ultimate canvas for sweet and savory culinary creativity. 50 seasonal recipes that reimagine the "bread and butter" of cuisine with simple ingredients in surprising ways.

Easy enough for breakfast, yet suitable for brunch, lunch, dinner and even dessert, the possibilities of heaping beautiful seasonal ingredients on bread are limitless. Organized by season, Toast features 50 recipes from savory to sweet that unleash the power of fresh ingredients and simple techniques guaranteed to impress and satisfy any kitchen audience on any occasion. Award-winning food writer Raquel Pelzel's relatable and accessible recipes span generations and cultures, and shatter expectations of what this humble favorite can be.

Broiled or char-grilled, pan-fried or deep-fried, a good slice of bread is the ultimate platform to showcase your culinary skills. Toast will teach you to simply and effectively wow friends and family with creative, delicious combinations of ingredients from summer tomato salad, or pickled shrimp and avocado, to roasted squash and molten cheese, poached egg and fried pancetta, or even s'mores.

So much more than just bread and butter, toast is experiencing a global renaissance. Professional chefs are seizing on the creative potential of a beautiful canvas of bread and delivering sophisticated culinary masterpieces that showcase their own brilliant palettes. Toast invites home cooks to join the ranks of renowned chefs in their experiments and even brings some of their recipes to life with contributions by 8 celebrity chefs including Hugh Acheson, Deb Perelman (The Smitten Kitchen), Fergus Henderson (St. John) and more.

As simple or as sophisticated as you want it to be, yet always comforting and nourishing, Toast is perfect for those looking for seasonal, market-inspired recipes, or gourmet treats presented in an approachable manner.

With something for every palate and occasion, this is the ideal book for new and seasoned cooks alike as well as everyone from college students and recent graduates to newlyweds and empty nesters.

Artisanal toast is a hit in the media with features on Today, GMA, and NPR, and on the pages of The New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Guardian, and Bon Appétit.

Raquel Pelzel is an award-winning food writer and cookbook collaborator. She has written recipes for Saveur, Wall Street Journal, Every Day with Rachael Ray, and Edible Manhattan, and is a cookbook columnist for Epicurious. She was an editor at Cook's Illustrated and senior food editor and test kitchen director for Tasting Table. Toast is Raquel’s first solo cookbook. She lives in Brooklyn.

Accolades for Raquel Pelzel

Winner of IACP/Bert Greene Award for Food Journalism for Culinary Writing with Recipes for Eat Shoots & Leaves column for Gilt Taste (2011)

Co-author of James Beard Award nominated Masala Farm (Chronicle, 2011)

Co-author of James Beard Award nominated and IACP nominated book, DamGoodSweet (Taunton, 2009), also selected as a top three baking book of 2009 by Food + Wine, and a top ten cookbook of 2009 by AOL

Co-author of Two Dudes, One Pan (Clarkson Potter, 2008) featured in the New York Times as one of the best cookbooks of the year; by National Public Radio as one of their top ten cookbooks of the year; and in the LA Times Cookbook Watch column

Co-author of American Masala (Clarkson Potter, 2007) featured in the New York Times as one of the best cookbooks of the year; one of the top ten cookbooks of the year by Martha Stewart Living, epicurious.com, and the New York Daily News

Writer of IACP-nominated book Food Network Kitchens Making It Easy (Meredith, 2004)

Author of 4 chapters and 70 original recipes in James Beard Award winning book, The Quick Recipe (Boston Common Press, 2003)