New Releases by Michael Ruhlman

From James Beard Award–winning author Michael Ruhlman, a coming-of-age story about finding a new life and love in the kitchen…and trying not to get burned along the way. Out now in paperback! When high school football star Theo Claverback breaks his leg just weeks after a devastating break-up, he’s forced to call an audible on his summer plans and put his college ones on hold. He soon finds himself in the most unlikely of places for a jock on crutches: the kitchen of an upscale French restaurant, where he’ll work as a prep cook while his heart and leg heal. But it’s in the kitchen where Theo finds new purpose and a new romance. As he becomes a trusted employee to Chef and is welcomed into his inner circle, Theo begins to discover the true costs of running a restaurant—and what happens when you get into hot water with the wrong people. Set in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1980, If You Can''t Take the Heat is a gritty look inside the belly of an upscale kitchen where love and danger boil behind closed doors.

Chef Brian Polycn and Michael Ruhlman, authors of the landmark cookbook Charcuterie, reunite to teach home cooks and professional chefs the craft of savory pies with 90 new recipes and step-by-step how-to photographs. Learn the secrets of a good dough, explore classic meat preparations, and discover how fish and vegetable pie traditions can be adapted for today’s tastes. When it comes to American cooking, no chef-writer duo is more revered than Chef Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman. In their new cookbook, Meat Pies, they cover the fundamentals of meat, seafood, and vegetable concoctions topped with, enclosed in, or wrapped in dough. After teaching readers the basics of what they need to get started, including necessary equipment and the all-important moisture barrier (to avoid soggy crusts), Polcyn and Ruhlman divide their pies into neat categories: + Pot Pies + Hand-Raised Pies, designed to be eaten at room temperature + Rolled Raised Pies, in which the dough is wrapped around a filling and simply baked + Tarts and Galettes + Double-Crusted Pies + Turnovers + Vol-au-Vents, or mini tarts with filling added after baking This structure allows the home cook to master the dough and form required for the recipes as written—and also encourages invention, creativity, and discovery. Most pies will pair well with a sauce; others will work with the recipes for all-purpose sides and condiments. Featured recipes range from a deeply comforting Beef Short Rib and Vegetable Pot Pie to an elegant Mediterranean Vegetable Pie wrapped in crispy dough to a Cumberland-Style Sausage Roll with origins that date back five hundred years. Modern preparations play with flavor without piling on the fat, as in The Best Mushroom Tart; a Fish Pot Pie topped with a potato crust; and the dramatic Chicken Sheet Pan Pie with bacon, roasted garlic, and fresh herbs. Informed by Polcyn’s decades of award-winning cooking and teaching, and brought to life by Ruhlman’s engaging prose, Meat Pies presents an innovative and exciting guide to an ancient craft.

*WINNER of an IACP COOKBOOK AWARD* New York Times bestselling author Michael Ruhlman applies the principles of his innovative book Ratio—about the relationships of ingredients to each other—in this delightful back-to-basics cocktail book, sharing the simple recipes and fundamental techniques that make for delicious and satisfying libations. Did you know that a Gimlet, a Daiquiri, and a Bee’s Knees are the same cocktail? As are a Cosmopolitan, a Margarita, and a Sidecar. When hosting a party wouldn’t you enjoy saying to your guests, “Would you care for a Boulevardier, perhaps, or a Negroni?” These, too, are the same cocktail, substituting one ingredient for another. Or if you’d like to be able to shake up a batch of whiskey sours for a party of eight in fewer than two minutes, then read on. As Michael Ruhlman explains, our most popular cocktails are really ratios—proportions of one ingredient relative to the others. Organized around five of our best-known, beloved, classic families of cocktails, each category follows a simple ratio from which myriad variations can be built: The Manhattan, The Gimlet, The Margarita, The Negroni, and the most debated cocktail ever, The Martini. A practical reference of cocktail classics, a source of inspiration for putting a new spin on the usual gin and tonic, and an affable tribute to the pleasures of the cocktail hour, The Book of Cocktail Ratios shows you how to serve up delectable drinks in no time. Cheers!

From award-winning chef Gabriel Kreuther, the definitive cookbook on rustic French cooking from Alsace Gabriel Kreuther is the cookbook fans of the James Beard Award-winning chef have long been waiting for. From one of the most respected chefs in the United States, this cookbook showcases the recipes inspired by Kreuther’s French-Swiss-German training and refined global style, one that embraces the spirits of both Alsace, his homeland, and of New York City, his adopted home. Sharing his restaurant creations and interpretations of traditional Alsatian dishes, Kreuther will teach the proper techniques for making every dish, whether simple or complex, a success. Recipes include everything from the chef''s take on classic Alsatian food like the delicious Flammekueche (or Tarte Flambée) and hearty Baeckeoffe (a type of casserole stew) to modern dishes like the flavorful Roasted Button Mushroom Soup served with Toasted Chorizo Raviolis and the decadent Salmon Roe Beggar’s Purse garnished with Gold Leaf. Featuring personal stories from the chef''s childhood in France and career in New York as well as stunning photography, Gabriel Kreuther is the definitive resource for Alsatian cooking worthy of fine dining.

From the James Beard Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author. “Through the recipes for 10 classic meals, he covers how to cook almost anything.” —Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa From Scratch looks at ten favorite meals, including roast chicken, the perfect omelet, and paella—and then, through 175 recipes, explores myriad alternate pathways that the kitchen invites. A delicious lasagna can be ready in about an hour, or you could turn it into a project: try making and adding some homemade sausage. Explore the limits of from-scratch cooking: make your own pasta, grow your own tomatoes, and make your own homemade mozzarella and ricotta. Ruhlman tells you how. There are easy and more complex versions for most dishes, vegetarian options, side dishes, sub-dishes, and strategies for leftovers. Ruhlman reflects on the ways that cooking from scratch brings people together, how it can calm the nerves and focus the mind, and how it nourishes us, body and soul. “Like a master chef clarifying a murky stock into a crystal-clear consommé, Ruhlman detangles the complex web of technique, myth, and folklore that is cooking . . . The lessons are set up in such a way that you can decide exactly how deep a dive you want to take, though with a guide like Ruhlman at your side, that’s most likely a mouth-first leap straight into the deep end.” —J. Kenji López-Alt, New York Times-bestselling-author of The Wok “He’s like a good friend joining you in the kitchen, and this book will certainly become the home cook’s trusted companion.” —Thomas Keller, chef/proprietor, The French Laundry

The best-selling team behind Charcuterie and Salumi further deepens our understanding of a venerable craft. In Pâté, Confit, Rillette, Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman provide a comprehensive guide to the most elegant and accessible branch of the charcuterie tradition. There is arguably nothing richer and more flavorful than a slice of pâté de foie gras, especially when it’s spread onto crusty bread. Anyone lucky enough to have been treated to a duck confit, poached and preserved in its own fat, or a pâté en croute, knows they’re impossible to resist. And yet, pâtés, confits, rillettes, and similar dishes featured in this book were developed in the pursuit of frugality. Butchers who didn’t want to waste a single piece of the animals they slaughtered could use these dishes to serve and preserve them. In so doing, they founded a tradition of culinary alchemy that transformed lowly cuts of meat into culinary gold. Polcyn and Ruhlman begin with crucial instructions about how to control temperature and select your ingredients to ensure success, and quickly move on to master recipes, offering the fundamental ratios of fat, meat, and seasoning, which will allow chefs to easily make their own variations. The recipes that follow span traditional dishes and modern inventions, featuring a succulent chicken terrine embedded with sautéed mushrooms and flecked with bright green herbs; modern rillettes of shredded salmon and whitefish; classic confits of duck and goose; and a vegetarian layered potato terrine. Pâté, Confit, Rillette is the book to reach for when a cook or chef intends to explore these timeless techniques, both the fundamentals and their nuances, and create exquisite food.

The New York Times–bestselling author “digs deep into the world of how we shop and how we eat. It’s a marvelous, smart, revealing work” (Susan Orlean, #1 bestselling author). In a culture obsessed with food—how it looks, what it tastes like, where it comes from, what is good for us—there are often more questions than answers. Ruhlman proposes that the best practices for consuming wisely could be hiding in plain sight—in the aisles of your local supermarket. Using the human story of the family-run Midwestern chain Heinen’s as an anchor to this journalistic narrative, he dives into the mysterious world of supermarkets and the ways in which we produce, consume, and distribute food. Grocery examines how rapidly supermarkets—and our food and culture—have changed since the days of your friendly neighborhood grocer. But rather than waxing nostalgic for the age of mom-and-pop shops, Ruhlman seeks to understand how our food needs have shifted since the mid-twentieth century, and how these needs mirror our cultural ones. A mix of reportage and rant, personal history and social commentary, Grocery is a landmark book from one of our most insightful food writers. “Anyone who has ever walked into a grocery store or who has ever cooked food from a grocery store or who has ever eaten food from a grocery store must read Grocery. It is food journalism at its best and I’m so freakin’ jealous I didn’t write it.” —Alton Brown, television personality “If you care about why we eat what we eat—and you want to do something about it—you need to read this absorbing, beautifully written book.” —Ruth Reichl, New York Times–bestselling author

Another master class from award-winning culinary expert Michael Ruhlman: how to cook on your stovetop, featuring accessible instruction and exceptional recipes to elevate the cooking of beginners and professionals alike. The sauté station is the place all aspiring restaurant chefs want to be: the "hot seat," where the action happens. The same is true at home, where a good sauté unlocks the pleasures of dishes such as Veal Scaloppini, Sautéed Mushrooms, Chicken Schnitzel with Sage Spaetzle, Sautéed Duck Breast with Rhubarab Gastrique, and Flatiron Steak with Sautéed Shallots and Tarragon Butter. In How to Sauté, Ruhlman gives you essential information and straightforward advice about the tools you need (and which ones you don''t); tips on stocking your pantry for the greatest efficiency, flexibility, and flavor; and dozens of color photographs showcasing finished dishes and step-by-step cooking techniques.

"In HOW TO SAUTE, Ruhlman gives you essential information and straightforward advice about the tools you need (and which ones you don''t); tips on stocking your pantry for the greatest efficiency, flexibility, and flavor; and dozens of color photographs showcasing finished dishes and step-by-step cooking techniques." --

“A propulsively well-written trio of novellas linked by a sense of loss and an inquiry into the impossible past.” —Kate Christensen In his three novellas, “In Short Measures,” “Strong Conspirators,” and “Sally Forth,” Michael Ruhlman delves deeply into the nuanced complexity of romantic and sexual love—and the inevitable evolution of the heart over the span of years and decades. Each novella asks questions about the nature of love in terms of loyalty and fidelity—what are one’s obligations toward one’s spouse, one’s family, and one’s heart? In the first novella, “In Short Measures,” these questions are bound up in a writer’s work and a long-ago love. In the second, “Strong Conspirators,” an unforeseen, cataclysmic event calls for responses from a husband and wife that have never been rehearsed because they have never been required nor even imagined. In “Sally Forth,” a pair of old friends is forced to explore lost youth and lost love relative to maturity, marriage, and the passage of time. Profoundly thought-provoking and satisfying, these novellas are beautifully written with plot twists from beginning to end that will captivate the reader. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The second in a series of highly accessible and instructive single-subject books covering basic to advanced techniques that will make you a better cook. According to James Beard-award winning cookbook author Michael Ruhlman, "Braising is what cooking is truly about -- transformation. You start with a tough, often inexpensive, cut of meat, and through your care and knowledge as a cook, you turn it into something tender and succulent and exquisite. That is true cooking, cooking that engages both mind and soul." Among the recipes featured in this second book in Ruhlmans''s new "how-to" series are Moroccan Lamb Tagine, Classic Yankee Pot Roast, Mexican Pork and Posole Stew with Dried Chilis, Braised Fennel, and a Corned Beef and Cabbage Braise. As with the other books in this line, practical information about essential tools and staple pantry items will be outlined, along with straightforward and clearly presented advice and dozens of colorphotographs showcasing both finished dishes and step-by-step cooking techniques.

In this first in a new series of books focusing on cooking methods, an award-winning cookbook author, food writer, and online culinary expert explores one of the most fundamental cooking techniques: roasting. Humankind has been roasting for millennia. The term originally referred to cooking over an open fire, usually on some kind of spit, and has evolved to describe cooking of meat or vegetables or even fruit in an oven, a "dry heat" (and usually high-heat) method of making things irresistibly appetizing. Michael Ruhlman has developed a reputation for providing lucid, no-nonsense cooking advice as sharp as a good chef''s knife. "Of all our cooking terms," Ruhlman writes, "sautéed, grilled, poached, broiled -- I believe roasted is the most evocative adjective we can attach to our food, conjuring as it does ideas of deep rich flavors and delicious browning." Ruhlman''s How to Roast combines practical advice -- what tools you need, staple ingredients to have on hand, how to get the most out of your oven -- with 20 original and mouthwatering recipes, chosen to showcase a wide range of roasting methods and results, from "The Icon" (roast chicken), to Monkfish Roasted with Tomatoes and Basil, to Roasted Peaches with Mint Créme Fraiche. Dozens of color photographs offer step-by-step illustration as well as finished-dish showpieces.

In this innovative cookbook, James Beard award-winning author Michael Ruhlman explains why the egg is the key to the craft of cooking. For culinary visionary Michael Ruhlman, the question is not whether the chicken or the egg came first, it''s how anything could be accomplished in the kitchen without the magic of the common egg. He starts with perfect poached and scrambled eggs and builds up to brioche and Italian meringue. Along the way readers learn to make their own mayonnaise, pasta, custards, quiches, cakes, and other preparations that rely fundamentally on the hidden powers of the egg. A unique framework for the book is provided in Ruhlman''s egg flowchart, which starts with the whole egg at the top and branches out to describe its many uses and preparations -- boiled, pressure-cooked, poached, fried, coddled, separated, worked into batters and doughs, and more. A removable illustrated flowchart is included with the book. Nearly 100 recipes are grouped by technique and range from simple (Egg Salad with Tarragon and Chives) to sophisticated (nougat). Dozens of step-by-step photographs guide the home cook through this remarkable culinary journey.

An essential update of the perennial bestseller. Charcuterie exploded onto the scene in 2005 and encouraged an army of home cooks and professional chefs to start curing their own foods. This love song to animal fat and salt has blossomed into a bona fide culinary movement, throughout America and beyond, of curing meats and making sausage, pâtés, and confits. Charcuterie: Revised and Updated will remain the ultimate and authoritative guide to that movement, spreading the revival of this ancient culinary craft. Early in his career, food writer Michael Ruhlman had his first taste of duck confit. The experience “became a fascination that transformed into a quest” to understand the larger world of food preservation, called charcuterie, once a critical factor in human survival. He wondered why its methods and preparations, which used to keep communities alive and allowed for long-distance exploration, had been almost forgotten. Along the way he met Brian Polcyn, who had been surrounded with traditional and modern charcuterie since childhood. “My Polish grandma made kielbasa every Christmas and Easter,” he told Ruhlman. At the time, Polcyn was teaching butchery at Schoolcraft College outside Detroit. Ruhlman and Polcyn teamed up to share their passion for cured meats with a wider audience. The rest is culinary history. Charcuterie: Revised and Updated is organized into chapters on key practices: salt-cured meats like pancetta, dry-cured meats like salami and chorizo, forcemeats including pâtés and terrines, and smoked meats and fish. Readers will find all the classic recipes: duck confit, sausages, prosciutto, bacon, pâté de campagne, and knackwurst, among others. Ruhlman and Polcyn also expand on traditional mainstays, offering recipes for hot- and cold-smoked salmon; shrimp, lobster, and leek sausage; and grilled vegetable terrine. All these techniques make for a stunning addition to a contemporary menu. Thoroughly instructive and fully illustrated, this updated edition includes seventy-five detailed line drawings that guide the reader through all the techniques. With new recipes and revised sections to reflect the best equipment available today, Charcuterie: Revised and Updated remains the undisputed authority on charcuterie.

The definitive book on schmaltz -- a staple in Jewish cuisine and a "thread in a great tapestry," by one of America''s most respected culinary writers. For culinary expert Michael Ruhlman, the ultimate goal in cooking is flavor, and for certain dishes nothing introduces it half as well as schmaltz. A staple ingredient in traditional Jewish cuisine, schmaltz (or rendered chicken fat), is at risk of disappearing from use due to modern dietary trends and misperceptions about this versatile and flavor-packed ingredient. The Book of Schmaltz acts as a primer on schmaltz, taking a fresh look at traditional dishes like kugel, kishke, and kreplach, and also venturing into contemporary recipes that take advantage of the versatility of this marvelous fat. Potatoes cooked with schmaltz take on a crispness and satisfying flavor that vegetable oil can''t produce. Meats and starches have a depth and complexity that set them apart from the same dishes prepared with olive oil or butter. What''s more, schmaltz provides a unique link to the past that ought to be preserved. "Schmaltz is like a thread that runs through a great tapestry," says Ruhlman''s neighbor Lois, whose cooking inspired his own journey into the world of schmaltz. "It''s a secret handshake among Jews who love to cook and eat."

The craft of Italian salumi, now accessible to the American cook, from the authors of the best-selling Charcuterie. Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn inspired a revival of artisanal sausage making and bacon curing with their surprise hit, Charcuterie. Now they delve deep into the Italian side of the craft with Salumi, a book that explores and simplifies the recipes and techniques of dry curing meats. As the sources and methods of making our food have become a national discussion, an increasing number of cooks and professional chefs long to learn fundamental methods of preparing meats in the traditional way. Ruhlman and Polcyn give recipes for the eight basic products in Italy’s pork salumi repertoire: guanciale, coppa, spalla, lardo, lonza, pancetta, prosciutto, and salami, and they even show us how to butcher a hog in the Italian and American ways. This book provides a thorough understanding of salumi, with 100 recipes and illustrations of the art of ancient methods made modern and new.

Rare is the cookbook that redefines how we cook. And rare is the author who can do so with the ease and expertise of acclaimed writer and culinary authority Michael Ruhlman.

Hometown boy turned superstar, Michael Symon is one of the hottest food personalities in America. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, he is counted among the nation’s greatest chefs, having joined the ranks of Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and Masaharu Morimoto as one of America’s Iron Chefs. At his core, though, he’s a midwestern guy with family roots in old-world traditions. In Michael Symon’s Live to Cook, Michael tells the amazing story of his whirlwind rise to fame by sharing the food and incredible recipes that have marked his route. Michael is known for his easy, fresh food. He means it when he says that if a dish requires more than two pans to finish, he’s not going to make it. Cooking what he calls “heritage” food–based on the recipes beloved by his Greek—Italian—Eastern European—American parents and the community in Cleveland–Michael draws on the flavors of traditional recipes to create sophisticated dishes, such as his Beef Cheek Pierogies with Wild Mushrooms and Horseradish, which came out of the pierogies that his grandpa made. Michael translates the influences of the diverse working-class neighborhood in which he grew up into dishes with Mediterranean ingredients, such as those in Olive Oil Poached Halibut with Fennel, Rosemary, and Garlic; Italian-style handmade pastas, like Linguini with Heirloom Tomato, Capers, Anchovies, and Chilies; and re-imagined Cleveland favorites, such as Mac and Cheese with Roasted Chicken, Goat Cheese, and Rosemary. Part of Michael’s irresistible allure on the Food Network comes from how much fun he has in the kitchen. To help readers gain confidence and have a good time, Michael Symon’s Live to Cook has advice for cooking like a pro, starting with basic instructions for how to correctly use techniques such as braising, poaching, and pickling. There’s also information on how caramelizing vegetables and toasting spices can give dishes a greater depth of flavor–instead of a heavy, time-consuming stock-based sauce–and why the perfect finishing touch to most meat or fish dishes can be a savory hot vinaigrette instead. With fantastic four-color photography throughout and tons of helpful “Symon Says” tips, Michael Symon’s Live to Cook is bound to get anyone fired up about getting into the kitchen and cooking up something downright delicious.

Essays on topics ranging from the handling of raw fish and the power of vinaigrette to the virtues of Tabasco highlight this cookbook which features more than 125 recipes reflecting the various seasons in four different locales.

Michael Ruhlman’s groundbreaking New York Times bestseller takes us to the very “truth” of cooking: it is not about recipes but rather about basic ratios and fundamental techniques that makes all food come together, simply. When you know a culinary ratio, it’s not like knowing a single recipe, it’s instantly knowing a thousand. Why spend time sorting through the millions of cookie recipes available in books, magazines, and on the Internet? Isn’t it easier just to remember 1-2-3? That’s the ratio of ingredients that always make a basic, delicious cookie dough: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. From there, add anything you want—chocolate, lemon and orange zest, nuts, poppy seeds, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, almond extract, or peanut butter, to name a few favorite additions. Replace white sugar with brown for a darker, chewier cookie. Add baking powder and/or eggs for a lighter, airier texture. Ratios are the starting point from which a thousand variations begin. Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Biscuit dough is 3:1:2—or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. This ratio is the beginning of many variations, and because the biscuit takes sweet and savory flavors with equal grace, you can top it with whipped cream and strawberries or sausage gravy. Vinaigrette is 3:1, or 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, and is one of the most useful sauces imaginable, giving everything from grilled meats and fish to steamed vegetables or lettuces intense flavor. Cooking with ratios will unchain you from recipes and set you free. With thirty-three ratios and suggestions for enticing variations, Ratio is the truth of cooking: basic preparations that teach us how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen—water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs—work. Change the ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough, cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes. As the culinary world fills up with overly complicated recipes and never-ending ingredient lists, Michael Ruhlman blasts through the surplus of information and delivers this innovative, straightforward book that cuts to the core of cooking. Ratio provides one of the greatest kitchen lessons there is—and it makes the cooking easier and more satisfying than ever.

Exploring the essence of becoming a chef, this book reveals the elusive, unnameable elements of great cooking.

New York Times bestselling author Michael Ruhlman deconstructs the "essential knowledge all cooks and food people need" (The New York Times Book Review) to reveal what professional chefs know only after years of training and experience. With alphabetically ordered entries and eight beautifully written essays, Ruhlman outlines what it takes to cook well: understanding heat, using the right tools, cooking with eggs, making stock, making sauce, salting food, what a cook should read, and exploring the most important skill to have in the kitchen, finesse. The Elements of Cooking gives everyone the tools they need to go from being a good cook to a great one.

The author of The Soul of a Chef looks at the new role of the chef in contemporary culture For his previous explorations into the restaurant kitchen and the men and women who call it home, Michael Ruhlman has been described by Anthony Bourdain as "the greatest living writer on the subject of chefs, and on the business of preparing food." In The Reach of a Chef, Ruhlman examines the profound shift in American culture that has raised restaurant cooking to the level of performance art and the status of the chef to celebrity CEO. Bibliophiles and foodies alike will savor this intimate meeting with some of the most famous chefs in the kitchens of the hottest restaurants in the world.

Michael Ruhlman’s uncanny knack for taking a wide range of subjects and making them completely his own has gained him acclaim and popularity. In his latest offering, he owns the subject both figuratively and literally: his home. House really began in 1901 when a family moved into a brand-new house in Cleveland Heights—full of hope for the future and pride in their stunning home. But as time moved on, upkeep began to wane and, in the end, the house went on the market. And there it stayed for quite some time, until the Ruhlman family decided to buy the dilapidated building. With the always-tedious home-buying process and expensive repairs soaring into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the American Dream can seem like the American Nightmare. Detailing the purchase and renovation of a single family home, House explores the importance of the place we live in, our yearning to establish it, and the importance of the actual structure, its impact on our intellectual and spiritual lives, and on the struggles of a family. Packed with useful information and stories written with a storyteller’s flair, House is a dramatic narrative by a gifted writer who eloquently concludes that be it ever so humble, a castle or a row house downtown, there’s truly no place like home.

Described by one surgeon as “soul-crushing, diamond-making stress,” surgery on congenital heart defects is arguably the most difficult of all surgical specialties. Drawing back the hospital curtain for a unique and captivating look at the extraordinary skill and dangerous politics of critical surgery in a pediatric heart center, Michael Ruhlman focuses on the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, where a team of medical specialists—led by idiosyncratic virtuoso Dr. Roger Mee—work on the edge of disaster on a daily basis. Walk on Water offers a rare and dramatic glimpse into a world where the health of innocent children and the hopes of white-knuckled families rest in the hands of all-too-human doctors.

There are fewer than 10,000 wooden boats in America, but the circulation of WoodenBoat magazine exceeds 180,000. What is it about these boats that has captured the popular imagination? With his "lively blend of reportage [and] reflection" (Los Angeles Times), Michael Ruhlman sets off for a renowned boatyard in Martha''s Vineyard to follow the construction of two boats-Rebecca, a 60-foot modern pleasure schooner, and Elisa Lee, a 32-foot powerboat. Filled with exquisite details and stories of the sea, this exciting exploration of a nearly forgotten craft and the colorful personalities involved will enthrall wooden boat owners as well as craftspeople of every stripe, nature enthusiasts, and fans of compelling nonfiction.

"...[An]adventure story, a hold-your-breath-while-you-turn-the-page thriller that''s also an anthropological study of the culture of cooking" -- Anthony Bourdain, The New York Times The classic account of what drives a chef to perfection by accaimed write Michael Ruhlman -- —winner of the IACP Cookbook Award In this in-depth foray into the world of professional cooking, Michael Ruhlman journeys into the heart of the profession. Observing the rigorous Certified Master Chef exam at the Culinary Institute of America, the most influential cooking school in the country, Ruhlman enters the lives and kitchens of rising star Michael Symon and renowned Thomas Keller of the French Laundry (and Per Se). This fascinating book will satisfy any reader''s hunger for knowledge about cooking and food, the secrets of successful chefs, at what point cooking becomes an art form, and more. Like Ruhlman''s The Making of a Chef, this is an instant classic in food writing.

A portrait of University School in Cleveland, Ohio, an all-boys'' day school, follows a year in the lives of the male students, teachers, and headmaster and explores the benefits of single-sex education.