In Eating Well for Optimum Health, one of Amazon's bestselling health books of 2000, alternative-medicine maverick Andrew Weil revealed his version of the ideal diet (and backed it up with scientific proof): a variety of unprocessed, or "whole" foods; just-picked, organic vegetables; whole grains; "good" fats, such as the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and nuts; fresh herbs and spices instead of heavy sauces; and a minimum of meat and dairy products. Eating this responsibly is certainly an admirable pursuit, but home cooking of this caliber can be intimidating, requiring much more energy than it would to pull up to the drive-through and order a burger and fries. In The Healthy Kitchen, Weil successfully teams up with Rosie Daley, formerly chef at the ritzy Cal-a-Vie Spa, to show how to cook with confidence within these dietary guidelines, creating dishes that are not only good for you, but are also fun to prepare, beautiful to look at, and delectable.For those of you predicting a tofu-fest, have no fear: Weil stresses he's "unwilling to eat food that is boring, artless, and devoid of pleasure even if it's somebody else's idea of healthful." Indeed, the gorgeous color photography in The Healthy Kitchen will get you drooling over healthy entrées like Warm Chicken and Asparagus Salad and desserts like Lemon Yogurt Sorbet. You can be proud to serve these recipes to your family and friends--many of the appetizers and entrées are perfect party foods, sized to feed a dozen. Some recipes are notably more complicated than others--Cold Vegetable Pasta Primavera involves grilling five different veggies; baked Vegetable Wontons are time-consuming if you're not familiar with the folding process. However, Daley and Weil advise working your way up to these more complex dishes.
Sprinkled throughout the book are witty and wise health tips from Weil and cooking shortcuts from Daley. The two admit they don't agree on all cooking matters; Weil would substitute cashew milk for coconut milk and adds his two cents on making the Thai Shrimp and Papaya Salad spicier, for example. The Healthy Kitchen seems to be influenced a bit by Martha Stewart's Healthy Quick Cook, with Weil's text shaded in that unmistakably Martha sage-green, and Daley's in what Stewart might call bisque. Both books emphasize seasonal fresh foods and boast sumptuous photography and tempting menu suggestions. However, Weil and Daley outdo her with calorie and nutritional breakdowns for each dish, shopping guides for easy meal planning, and tips on encouraging children to help out in the kitchen (and develop lifelong healthy eating habits in the process). --Erica Jorgensen
Price: $24.95
Do you have what it takes to be a "Five-Star" chef? Hell's Kitchen is a TV phenomenon featuring world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay putting aspiring chefs through rigorous culinary tests. The game recreates the show's pressure-cooker atmosphere as you complete a series of kitchen and dining room challenges. Fulfilling an order requires three important phases - preparation, cooking and service, all of which you must master to progress. Prepare ingredients, cook them to the correct quality and get food out of the kitchen on time. Each complete meal is scored by Chef Gordon Ramsay to make the kitchen boot camp experience come alive. 
The Ozeri Pro Digital Kitchen Scale is designed for the culinary perfectionist who desires the superior accuracy in function and elegance in form. This multifunction Kitchen Scale incorporates oversized buttons that generate an audible click confirmation for the fast-paced cook, and an automatic Tare button that quickly calculates the net weight of your ingredients by subtracting the container weight, whether the container is a bowl, tray, plate or anything else. The scale is finished in elegant chrome, and has a capacity range from a mere 0.05 ounces to 11 lbs. The scale also displays results in both the US and international metric systems (grams | ounces | pounds | kilograms). The large screen features a new bright LCD with an improved viewing angle for the on-the-go cook. The Pro Digital Kitchen Scale Kitchen Scale also includes a 3 minute automatic turn-off that preserves battery life while giving you time to confirm each measurement (batteries included). 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
The Ozeri Ultra Thin Digital Kitchen Scale is designed for the culinary perfectionist who desires superior accuracy in function and sleekness in form. Updated with the latest generation in sensor technology, it provides precise results in graduations of 1g or 0.1oz. The Ozeri Ultra Thin Digital Kitchen Scale is also less than half an inch in thickness. It is one of the lightest kitchen scales on the market and offers easy portability. It also boasts an elegant stainless steel surface. The Ozeri Ultra Thin Digital Kitchen Scale comes equipped with 2 Lithium removable batteries for long life. It also features oversized buttons that generate an audible click confirmation for the fast-paced cook, and an automatic Tare button that quickly calculates the net weight of your ingredients by subtracting the container weight, whether the container is a bowl, tray, plate or anything else. The Ozeri Ultra Thin Digital Kitchen Scale has a capacity range from a mere 0.1 ounces to 11 lbs. The scale also displays results in both the US and international metric systems (grams | ounces | pounds | kilograms). The large screen features a new bright LCD with an improved viewing angle for the on-the-move chef. The Ozeri Ultra Thin Digital Kitchen Scale also includes a 1 minute automatic turn-off that preserves battery life while giving you time to confirm each measurement (batteries included).
Now you can get professional results just like your favorite chefs-in your own kitchen.
Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of "wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths," in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase. Such is the muscular view of the culinary trenches from one who's been groveling in them, with obvious sadomasochistic pleasure, for more than 20 years. CIA-trained Bourdain, currently the executive chef of the celebrated Les Halles, wrote two culinary mysteries before his first (and infamous) New Yorker essay launched this frank confessional about the lusty and larcenous real lives of cooks and restaurateurs. He is obscenely eloquent, unapologetically opinionated, and a damn fine storyteller--a Jack Kerouac of the kitchen. Those without the stomach for this kind of joyride should note his opening caveat: "There will be horror stories. Heavy drinking, drugs, screwing in the dry-goods area, unappetizing industry-wide practices. Talking about why you probably shouldn't order fish on a Monday, why those who favor well-done get the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel, and why seafood frittata is not a wise brunch selection.... But I'm simply not going to deceive anybody about the life as I've seen it." --Sumi Hahn
The Ozeri Pro Digital Kitchen Scale in Black is designed for the culinary perfectionist who desires the superior accuracy in function and elegance in form. The Ozeri Pro Digital Kitchen Scale in Black incorporates oversized buttons that generate an audible click confirmation for the fast-paced cook, and an automatic Tare button that quickly calculates the net weight of your ingredients by subtracting the container weight, whether the container is a bowl, tray, plate or anything else. The scale's weighing platform is finished in an elegant chrome color, and has a capacity range from a mere 0.05 ounces to 11 lbs. The scale also displays results in both the US and international metric systems (grams | ounces | pounds | kilograms). The large screen features a new bright LCD with an improved viewing angle for the on-the-go cook. The Ozeri Pro Digital Kitchen Scale in Black also includes a 3 minute automatic turn-off that preserves battery life while giving you time to confirm each measurement (batteries included).