How to Cook Everything Fast: A Better Way to Cook Great Food

Homemade wonton soup in 30 minutes. Chicken Parmesan without dredging and frying. Fruit crisp on the stovetop. The secret to cooking fast is cooking smart—choosing and preparing fresh ingredients efficiently.

In How to Cook Everything Fast, Mark Bittman provides a game plan for becoming a better, more intuitive cook while you wake up your weekly meal routine with 2,000 main dishes and accompaniments that are simple to make, globally inspired, and bursting with flavor.

How to Cook Everything Fast is a book of kitchen innovations. Time management— the essential principle of fast cooking— is woven into revolutionary recipes that do the thinking for you. You’ll learn how to take advantage of downtime to prepare vegetables while a soup simmers or toast croutons while whisking a dressing. Just cook as you read—and let the recipes guide you quickly and easily toward a delicious result.

Bittman overhauls hundreds of classics through clever (even unorthodox) use of equipment and techniques—encouraging what he calls “naturally fast cooking”—and the results are revelatory.

There are standouts like Cheddar Waffles with Bacon Maple Syrup (bold flavors in less time);

Charred Brussels Sprout Salad with Walnuts and Gorgonzola (the food processor streamlines chopping);

Spaghetti and Drop Meatballs with Tomato Sauce (no rolling or shaping);

and Apple Crumble Under the Broiler (almost instant dessert gratification).

Throughout, Bittman’s commonsense advice and plentiful variations provide cooks with freedom and flexibility, with tips for squeezing in further shortcuts, streamlined kitchen notes, and illustrations to help you prep faster or cook without a recipe.

How to Cook Everything Fast puts time on your side and makes a lifetime of homemade meals an exciting and delicious reality.

Mark Bittman’s revolutionary approach to fast cooking includes:

• Revolutionary "Real-Time" Recipes: A groundbreaking format that weaves prep and cooking steps together. Just cook as you read and let the instructions guide you to a delicious result in record time.
• Over 2,000 Quick and Easy Recipes: Find your new favorite weeknight meals, from homemade wonton soup in 30 minutes to Spaghetti and Drop Meatballs, with main dishes and sides for any occasion.
• Essential Time Management: Learn to cook smarter, not harder. Discover clever techniques and efficiency strategies that help you get from ingredients to finished dish with minimal effort.
• Hundreds of Vegetarian Main Dishes: Enjoy a huge collection of globally inspired, meat-free options, proving that fast, flavorful cooking isn't just for meat-eaters.

Mark Bittman is the author of more than thirty books, including the How to Cook Everything series and the #1 New York Times bestseller VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good. Over his long career at The New York Times, Bittman wrote for both the food and opinion pages, and was the lead Magazine food writer before launching his own popular web site, The Bittman Project.

Bittman has starred in four television series, including Showtime’s Emmy-winning Years of Living Dangerously. He is a longtime TODAY regular and has made hundreds of television, radio, and podcast appearances, including on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Real Time with Bill Maher, and CBS’s The Dish; and on NPR’s All Things Considered, Fresh Air, and Morning Edition. Together with daughter Kate Bittman, he has hosted their own podcast, Food with Mark Bittman since 2021.

Bittman has written for countless publications and spoken at dozens of universities and conferences; his 2007 TED talk “What’s wrong with what we eat?” has over five million views. He was a distinguished fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and a fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He has received six James Beard Awards, four IACP Awards, and numerous other honors.

In addition to his role as editor-in-chief for The Bittman Project, Bittman is currently special advisor on food policy at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where he teaches and hosts a lecture series. He is also the editor in chief of Heated. His most recent books beyond the How to Cook Everything Series are How to Eat; Animal, Vegetable, Junk; and Bittman Bread.