Erin Jeanne McDowell

Cook, food writer and food stylist

The student bookstore at The Culinary Institute of America was one of my favorite hangouts. Full disclosure, I scored this book from the sale bin, but it didn't take long for it to become one of my most dog-eared, well-loved books I own. This isn't a vegetarian book - it's just a book, sorted by vegetables (in alphabetical order, which really gets to the organizational nerd in me) of great dishes where vegetables are the star. It changed the way I thought about cooking, and broke me out of the whole "protein + two sides = dinner" mentality.