breakfast, lunch, dinner--life! ─ recipes and adventures from my home kitchen

In her first cookbook, the acclaimed chef shares her favorite cook-at-home recipes, inspired by her year off from professional cooking.

Missy Robbins had been on an upward trajectory through the ranks of chefdom, racking up accolades in Chicago at Spiaggia and in New York as the executive chef of A Voce Madison and A Voce Columbus, both of which earned Michelin stars under her leadership. But success in the grueling world of restaurant cooking took a toll, in sacrifices of time, health, and relationships. So in 2013 Robbins hung up the title of executive chef to explore life outside of the restaurant.

This book is a result of that year off: A collection of recipes that Robbins created in her tiny West Village kitchen while she rediscovered life outside of the restaurant world. These dishes, organized around essays narrating her year off, will help readers fall in love with cooking again, as Robbins did. In addition to pasta and the Italian-inspired dishes that Robbins is known for, there are her childhood favorites, such as chicken soup with ricotta dumplings, and breakfast, vegetable, and salad recipes, resulting from Robbins’s commitment to healthier eating habits; there is also a chapter of Asian recipes, inspired by a long-wished-for trip to Vietnam and Thailand. Intimate, engaging, and filled with Robbins’s signature thoughtful, ingredient-driven cooking, this cookbook gives readers the secrets to delicious and varied home cooking within a poignant story of self-discovery.

Missy Robbins is recognized for her exemplary Italian cuisine. From 2008 to 2013, she was executive chef of New York’s A Voce restaurants, during which time both received Michelin stars, which were maintained throughout her tenure. She opened her first restaurant, Lilia, in Brooklyn in 2016. Carrie King is a food writer and is the coauthor of Amanda Freitag’s best-selling cookbook The Chef Next Door.