Cookbooks

The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, (Morrow 2000) was inspired by my experiences in the Macrobiotic Movement of the 1970′s and 80′s. In those days I cooked round the clock in my tiny apartment for private clients and hosted the Macrobiotic Community Food Service – a private supper club in a town house on the Upper West Side of NYC. Many of the dishes are based on the cooking I did as Executive Chef of Angelica Kitchen. The recipes are almost all vegan, with the optional use of butter in some the desserts. I was totally green to publishing at the time, and completely excited and nervous the whole way through. Melissa Clark and I had a ball; cooking together, tasting, discussing my theories, philosophy, dreams and passion for the kitchen. My publisher, Judith Regan, gave me total freedom and encouraged me to just be myself and cook up a book. I am immensely proud of this one.

Fresh Food Fast (Harper Collins 2004) answers the persistant calls I have had for quick simple vegetarian meals. I conceived of the book as a companion to a television series by the same name. The TV series never launched but the book has helped thousands of my readers juggle work and family and still have time for delicious home cooking. Here I organize the cooking experience with the help of games plans and shopping lists, 48 menus follow the seasons each with a separate collection of desserts. I wrote the book after spending several years cooking dinner parties where I developed many of the time saving techniques that I included in the book. The menus were cooked and tested at the Miette Culinary Studio (a cozy little cooking school in Greenwich Village) with students every Thursday night through the seasons.

The Flexitarian Table: Inspired, Flexible Meals for Vegetarians, Meat Lovers and Everyone In Between (Houghton Mifflin 2007). Food without borders is the theme of this one. I cooked and styled the food for the great photography of Quentin Bacon with the help of my daughter Kayla Jo. Zoe Singer helped me with the text and did an excellent job organizing all the information.

Here’s what folks have to say about The Flexitarian Table:

“The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and now Peter Berley! Talk about peacemakers! Berley brings meat eaters and meat freers together at last. Now we can all meet in the middle- at the dinner table. I’m a flexitarian and proud of it!” – Rachel Ray

” Peter Berley’s talent lies not only in his brilliant cooking, which is an inspiration, but also in his clarity and accessibility. I can’t recommend this book more enthusiastically!” – Molley Katzen, author of Moosewood Cookbook

“Peter Berley has decoded the secret of many vegetarian dishes….they can equally please any carnivore!” -Daniel Boulud, Chef and Restaurateur