The Mac + Cheese Cookbook ─ 50 Simple Recipes from Homeroom, America's Favorite Mac and Cheese Restaurant

"A fun and playful cookbook featuring retro, decadent, and kid-friendly mac-and-cheese recipes from the popular Oakland restaurant Homeroom. Macaroni and cheese is one of America's favorite comfort foods, equally beloved by kids and adults. It relies on simple, affordable ingredients, yet the options for customization and improvisation have revitalized its popularity in restaurants--even upscale ones--and with home cooks. Now, Oakland's Homeroom restaurant, a perennially popular eatery with a menu devoted to mac-and-cheese, shares its secrets to the best-ever mac recipes, alongside recipes for easy sides like Brussels sprouts with bacon and old-school desserts like frozen peanut butter pie. The 50 recipes range from Vegan Mac to Triple Cream Mac, with plenty of permutations in between--like macs with stinky cheeses, veggie-lover macs, classic homestyle recipes like Tuna Mac, and international varieties like Sriracha Mac and Mexican Mac. With a primer on bechamel sauce, noodles, toppings, and beer/wine pairings plus an emphasis on quality ingredients and simple techniques, this affordable, colorful cookbook shows cheese-loving readers how to take the comfort-food staple to inventive new heights"--

ALLISON AREVALO started cooking pretty much when she was able to stand. Born into a food-loving Italian family in New York, she helped her great-grandmother cook massive meals for Sunday family dinners and learned the basics of cooking in that kitchen. Allison pursued a career as a marketing exec in NYC before deciding to follow her true passion in life: food. In 2008, Allison and her husband took a leap of faith: they quit their jobs and drove across the country to Oakland, CA, in hopes of one day opening a restaurant. Allison freelanced as a food writer and created the Local Lemons food blog, which showcased her original recipes. It received high accolades from Saveur.com, CNN, Serious Eats, and WSJ.com, among others. Her dream came true in 2010, the year she and Erin opened the doors to Homeroom.

ERIN WADE is a chef-turned-attorney-turned-chef-again. Erin’s love for cooking was sparked by her father’s homemade mac and cheese and her mother’s vast cookbook collection. While receiving her undergraduate degree at Princeton, Erin was a restaurant critic for the Daily Princetonian and apprenticed at night in the kitchen of a local French restaurant. Upon graduating, Erin worked as a line cook and in pastry at restaurants in New York before attending law school at Berkeley. After practicing law for a year, Erin came to her senses and decided to return to her love of cooking by opening Homeroom with Allison. She lives in Oakland with her husband, Uri, and her daughter, Ellie—her favorite cooking partners.