Perfectly Good Food: A Totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking

Finalist for the 2024 IACP Award for Food Issues & Matters

A Food & Wine Best New Summer Cookbook
A Smithsonian American Staff Recommendation

How to cook flexibly and fight food waste, with 80 recipes and 150 ideas to use up what you have.

You’re standing in front of your refrigerator, a week after your last trip to the supermarket. You’ve got a bunch of random veggies, some wrinkly fruit, near-expired milk, and those pricey fresh herbs you bought for that one recipe and don’t know how to use up. For a split second you picture yourself opening a trash bag, throwing everything away, and ordering takeout. We’ve all been there.

But instead…you pick up this cookbook. In no time you’ve prepared a Make-It-Your-Own Stir-Fry and How-You-Like-It Savory Pancakes, plus a Mix-and-Match Fruit Galette that you’ll have for dessert. Time to celebrate―you’re saving food, shrinking that grocery bill, and learning some key skills for making the most of what you have. It’s exciting to be able to create new dishes and waste less food, and most importantly―a delicious dinner is on the table!

Perfectly Good Food is a book for those moments everyone has, whether you cook for one or a whole household―moments standing before an overfull pantry or near-empty fridge, not sure what to do with an abundance of summer tomatoes or the last of the droopy spinach. Chock-full of ingenious use-it-up tips, smart storage ideas, and infinitely adaptable recipes, this book will teach you

• why smoothies are your secret weapon;
• how to freeze (almost) anything;
• why using your senses in the kitchen (including common sense!) is more important than so-called shelf-life.

Written by the chef-sisters behind Boston’s acclaimed Mei Mei Dumplings, this cookbook/field guide is a crucial resource for the thrifty chef, the environmentally mindful cook, and anyone looking to make the most of their ingredients.

30 illustrations

Margaret Li and Irene Li are sisters and cofounders of Mei Mei, a food-truck-turned-restaurant-turned-dumpling-company based in Boston, and coauthors of Perfectly Good Food. Margaret is the founder of Food Waste Feast and lives in Glasgow, Scotland. Irene is the recipient of a James Beard Leadership Award and lives in Boston.