Table of Contents

With abandon and restraint

Between the bookshelf and the kitchen


My pantry and other kitchenalia


1. Aperitivo


The art of the aperitif


2. Some like it hot


Season to taste


3. Some like it cold


The music in my kitchen


4. The great extenders


Bread and her many companions


Small tins and salted things



The nonna ratio



5. The main event


At home in three restaurants


The chicken and the egg


On herbs


6. Side by side


Coaxing flavour from water


7. Pastry and pudding



Baking for karma


The pen and the wooden spoon



How to cook an octopus


Thanks
Index

About the Author

Danielle Alvarez lives for cooking. It brings joy and calm like nothing else, and it is where she works out her anxieties and falls in love, over and over. Born in Miami to a Cuban family, Danielle's cooking journey includes time in some of the best California kitchens, including the Berkeley institution Chez Panisse. She was lured to Australia in 2016 to helm the kitchen of now beloved Sydney restaurant Fred's, from which she moved on in 2022. Returning to her home kitchen, she has relished rediscovering home cooking flavours, both how exceptional they can be - often better than in a restaurant - as well as the particular skills needed to coax them out.


Danielle has a regular column in Good Weekend, cooks regularly at events and pop-ups around the country, and her time out of the kitchen is dedicated to writing, consulting and cookbook-making. She hopes Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking can be a teacher, entertainer and friend, and has chosen each and every recipe with a view to bringing happiness to readers' tables. She lives by the ocean in Sydney with her partner and Ripley, her King Charles Cavalier.

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.