Susan Puckett

2 months ago | ajc.com | Susan Puckett

“Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes From Queen Victoria to King Charles III” (Ten Speed Press, $35) opens with a nod to the extravagant British banquets of yesteryear, where the richest and most powerful people on earth dined on gastronomic feats while quietly shaping history. “Souffle diplomacy” is how author Tom Parker Bowles terms these interactions which continue to this day — though typically with three courses instead of 12.

2 months ago | ajc.com | Susan Puckett

The latest cookbook from celebrity chef and restaurateur Michael Mina opens on the gritty streets of Old Cairo, at a food cart selling ta’ameya (fava-bean falafel) much like Mina’s Egyptian mother made. The humble fare is a far cry from the offerings of his Michelin-starred flagship San Francisco restaurant or the recipes in Mina’s eponymous 2006 cookbook.

Jan 22, 2025 | ajc.com | Susan Puckett

Owen Han is a social media influencer whose time-lapsesandwich-making demos draw in viewers withrhythmic slicing, cracking, pounding and sizzling sounds and an audible first-bite crunch. Now, with the help of veteran cookbook author Rick Rogers, he’s laid out the full-fledged formulas for those two-fisted masterpieces and the stories behind themin “Stacked: The Art of the Perfect Sandwich” (Harvest, $29.99). Han owes his passion for far-flung flavor combos to his cross-cultural upbringing.

Jan 15, 2025 | ajc.com | Susan Puckett

Day in and day out we’re saturated withdiet advice from so-called experts, much of it contradictory. All can agree, however, that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution; every body type and lifestyle is different. So who should we listen to? My Nguyen has captured my attention, not with rules, but with recipes.

Jan 8, 2025 | ajc.com | Susan Puckett

My husband and I regularly share kitchen duties. That mostly means that I cook and Ralph cleans up, although occasionally weswitch roles. But we almost never collaborate on a single recipe. Kitchen space is tight, and our differing approaches to the process could pose a threat to marital harmony. Sonja and Alex Overhiser empathize. “Cooking together is not for the faint of heart, the hotheaded, or the proud,” they write in “A Couple Cooks: 100 Recipes to Cook Together” (Chronicle, $40).