What to cook & how to cook it (2010)

If you have never chopped an onion with any confidence, start here. Jane Hornby photographs every step of every dish, more than 850 pictures across 100 recipes, so you can hold your pan up against the page instead of guessing what golden or softened is supposed to look like. The dishes are the everyday ones people actually want to make, such as a Margherita pizza and a beef stew, which keeps the first week of cooking rewarding rather than dutiful. The trade-off is range: anyone with a few years at the stove will find it elementary, and that is exactly why it works as a first book.