"When it comes to cooking, there are twelve seasons," says world-class chef Alfred Portale, and at his Gotham Bar and Grill restaurant, the menu changes every four weeks. Using only the freshest ingredients as they come into their prime, his approach is finely attuned to the changing rhythms of our lives and the way our focus changes from month to month.

After a privileged upbringing in Beverly Hills Fred Astaire's daughter Ava and her family moved to a 200-year-old farmhouse on the Irish coast. Here she discovered the joys of cooking as well as the countless pleasures of growing flowers and vegetables in her seaside garden. Ava's wide-ranging recipes and inventive decorating ideas have been shaped by this bountiful produce, and by the wild foods she gathers from the surrounding countryside and nearby ocean. Memorable parties and holiday celebrations-with Hollywood stars and local friends alike-are recorded alongside the easy-to-follow recipes.

In this stunning book, Ina celebrates a relaxed and innovative style of entertaining that is as much of a joy for the host and hostess as it is for the guests. Arranged by season, Ina's 16 parties are more about assembling food than about cooking for hours.

Tom Colicchio's New York restaurant Craft is all about the food. Not food as a medium for feats of culinary sleight of hand, but foods that taste unmistakably like themselves-- only more so. This is simple food that is not simplistic, dishes whose purpose is to celebrate fresh, seasonal, usually local ingredients. Rarely do the 125 recipes in Craft require the skills of a professional chef, but they always call for the insight of someone who knows how to bring out the essential flavor and texture of top-quality ingredients.

From The Earth to the Table includes more than 300 recipes featuring fresh seasonal ingredients and distinctive flavor combinations. Dishes such as Fish Tacos with Citrus Salsa and Cabbage Slaw, and Pecan Polenta Salad with Grilled Green Onions showcase Ash's global influences as the culinary directory of the Fetzer Vineyards Wine and Food Center in Northern California. All of the recipes in "From The Earth to the Table" show readers how to marry each dish with the appropriate wine. Illustrated with 16 pages of color photographs, "From The Earth to the Table" is the definitive guide to delicious, healthful wine country cuisine.

Gillian Duffy, culinary editor for New York magazine, presents an array of hors d'oeuvres, as delicious as they are attractive, to take us through the year. With expertise and enthusiasm, Gillian offers her own creations as well as recipes from top New York City chefs and caterers. Beautiful full-color photographs throughout the book whet the appetite and make this a splendid gift. Best of all, the recipes are easy enough to be prepared in anyone's home kitchen.

Hors d'Oeuvres moves from winter bites such as Raclette Crisps with Pecans and Basil to summer refreshers like Shrimp with Green-Chile Pesto. Classic cocktails such as the Cosmopolitan Martini are invented by master mixologists like Dale DeGroff of the Rainbow Room. Whether the event is flamboyant or low key, classic or cutting edge, Hors d'Oeuvres offers just what's needed to kick off a party or start a meal with style.

Illustrated with bright watercolors evoking the delicious languor of the warmer seasons, this charming collection of 30 delectable recipes is the perfect gift for those who revel in the fresh, clean-tasting meals of spring and summer.The warmth and abundance of the seasons are reflected in the recipes. 40 Full-color illustrations.

Filled with more than 125 recipes, 200 glorious, full-page photographs, and wonderful narrative vignettes, this rich, seasonal celebration of the Italian countryside is as much a travelogue as it is a cookbook. The authors collect the culinary wisdom of cooks from all parts of Italy, offering in the process a delightful glimpse of the country's culture and ambience.

On May 5th, 2003 Edna Lewis was inducted into the KitchenAid Cookbook Hall of Fame for her lifetime of achievements in the culinary industry. In recipes and reminiscences equally delicious, Edna Lewis celebrates the uniquely American country cooking she grew up with some fifty years ago in a small Virginia Piedmont farming community that had been settled by freed slaves. With menues for every season, she shares the ways her family prepared and enjoyed food, and, having made us yearn for all the good meals she describes, she shows us precisely how to reproduce them today in our own kitchens.