Your Starter Kitchen
Lisa Chernick’s go-to guide to gearing up, stocking your pantry, and starting to cook.
"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, James Beard Humanitarian of the Year (2022), author of the award-winning cookbooks Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge and The Breath of a Wok
"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
An accessible how-to guide to getting the most out of your kitchen, large or small. All the tools and equipment you really need, how to go about stocking a pantry, and how to organize it all. Plus fundamental techniques and a dozen simple recipes to get you started as a real home cook.
No matter what size or budget your kitchen can be the center of your home!
