From the legendary editor of some of the world's greatest cooks-including Julia Child and James Beard-a passionate and practical book about the joys of cooking for one.Here, in convincing fashion, Judith Jones demonstrates that cooking for yourself presents unparalleled possibilities for both pleasure and experimentation- you can utilize whatever ingredients appeal, using farmers' markets and specialty shops to enrich your palate and improve your health; you can feel free to fail, since a meal for one doesn't have to be perfect; and you can use leftovers to innovate-in the course of a week, the remains of beef bourguignon might be reimagined as a rag , pork tenderloin may become a stir-fry, a cup or two of wild rice produces both a refreshing pilaf and a rich pancake, and red snapper can be reinvented as a summery salad. It's a fulfilling and immensely economical process, one perfectly suited for our times-although, as Jones points out, cooking for one also means we can occasionally indulge ourselves in a favorite treat.Throughout, Jones is both our instructor and our mentor, suggesting basic recipes-such as tomato sauce, preserved lemons, pesto, and homemade stock-that all cooks should have on hand; teaching us how to improvise using an ingenious strategy of building meals through the week; and supplying us with a lifetime's worth of tips and shortcuts. From Child's advice for buying fresh meat to Beard's challenge to beginning crape-makers and Lidia Bastianich's tips for cooking perfectly sauced pasta, Jones's book presents a wealth of acquired knowledge from our finest cooks.The Pleasures of Cooking for One is a vibrant, wise celebration of food and enjoying our own company from one of our most treasured cooking experts.