Dishing with Style: Secrets to Great Tastes and Beautiful Presentations

Many cookbooks try to teach you how to feed a family of six on weeknights using as few ingredients as possible, in as short a time as possible—that is, mere sustenance. At the other end of the spectrum are those books with endless ingredient lists and cooking instructions that take the better part of a weekend, trying to teach you how to re-create world-class restaurant food at home—that is, mere fantasy. But neither approach teaches you how to do the one thing that has the greatest impact: to combine great-tasting food with great-looking food, to make guests say "Wow" as soon as they sit at the table, and then again when they take their first bites.

Dishing With Style fills that need. This is the book that will teach you how to create delicious, showstopping dishes for every course of the meal, from cocktails and hors d'oeuvres through first courses, entrées, and dessert. The recipes include classics like Roasted Lamb Chops with Orange, Garlic, and Rosemary Pesto Rub with Crème Fraîche Mashed Potatoes; Mediterranean favorites such as Grilled Tuscan-Style Steak with Focaccia Salsa, or Chocolate Pot de Crème; Asian-inspired dishes like Miso-Glazed Seared Tuna with Fresh Herb Salad; and such Latin flavors as Shredded Pork Burritos with Ancho Chile Sauce and Sangria Granita.

Nearly every recipe includes two stunning options for presenting the dish to your guests. One is more casual, often family-style, perfect for Sunday suppers and backyard get-togethers—but no matter how relaxed the event, there's no reason for the food to be anything other than beautiful. The other option is more elegant, usually served in individual plated portions, for dinner parties and more formal affairs. The recipes for both choices use the same ingredients and cooking method, but branch off at the end of the instructions, depending on what style you want for your service. No matter which presentation you choose, none of these recipes is complex. Rori Trovato knows that the secret to great party-throwing is for the host or hostess to be relaxed, not to be spending every minute in the kitchen preparing last-minute sauces and elaborate garnishes. So whether you're using the good china or the paper plates, Dishing With Style will show you how to pull it off with scrumptious food in beautiful settings—that is, how to dish with style.

RORI TROVATO has made a career out of making delicious food look beautiful. She's been the food stylist for nearly fifty cookbooks, including the bestselling Barefoot Contessa books, as well as worked for everything from Food & Wine and Martha Stewart Living to Williams Sonoma. She now writes a bi-monthly column for O, The Oprah Magazine. She lives in Santa Barbara, California, with her husband, photographer Luca Trovato.