Obsessed with the Best - 100+ Methodically Perfected Recipes Based on 20+ Head-to-Head Tests

A charmingly obsessive, visually stunning, thoroughly tested exploration of the best ways to cook and bake your favorite foods--featuring recipes that combine the smartest tips, tricks, tweaks, and shortcuts, and a series of essays from a 14-month round-the-world reporting trip--from Ella Quittner. Some might think the "best" chicken means "most efficient without sacrificing juicy meat," while others might think "best" is the one that you won''t be able to stop thinking about for fifteen years, no matter how long it takes in a sous vide bag. When writer Ella Quittner (former creator of Food52''s "Absolute Best Tests") is cooking or baking something, she absolutely cannot rest until she''s tested every method she can, to arrive at the best result. Even if that means traveling to Tokyo to learn the trick to extra juicy tsukune for her tender meatballs, or driving through Emilia-Romagna to collect nonna-approved methods for her chewiest fresh pasta, or spending time in the Alabama black belt gathering intel from the pros for her flakiest biscuits. In Obsessed with the Best, Ella walks you through the results of 24 head-to-head tests of cooking methods to help you find the perfect choice for your palate, plus the reasons behind her top results. From these building blocks, Ella shares more than 75 recipes, grounding you in minimalist techniques that maximize flavor, and sharing creative options as jumping off points for your own favorite flavors. Recipes include: The Fluffiest No-Special-Equipment-Needed Pancakes No Fail Perfect Poached Eggs The Last Vodka Sauce You''ll Ever Need Foolproof Cheesy Smashed Crispy Potatoes and more than a dozen optimized veggies, like Tomato-Butter Braised Cabbage. Entrees from Triple-Secret Tender Meatballs, One-Hour Roast Chicken, Opulent Slow-Roasted Chicken, and Poached Lemon-Butter Shrimp Sweets like Overachiever Extra Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Malted Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars, The Softest Yellow Cake, and Actually Doable Brown Butter French-ish Buttercream Sprinkled with reports on people, places, or things obsessed with "the best"--be it a bacon evangelist from Iowa who flies annually all the way to Kofu, Japan, to throw a "Porktober Fest" in the middle of a seasonal celebration of samurai culture, or an international spin through different pasta-making methods from Osaka to Tuscany-- Obsessed with the Best is precise, informative, personal, and fun in equal measure. ...

About the author

Ella Quittner is a journalist, screenwriter, and humorist who writes about obsession, culture and food. She has contributed to New York Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Baffler, T Magazine, Food52, Bon Appétit, Saveur, Food & Wine, and many other publications. Ella grew up back and forth between the West Coast and East Coast. She has explored much of the United States and beyond, stopping to find the best bite every single place she goes (even La Guardia).

Summary

A charmingly obsessive, thoroughly tested exploration of the best ways to cook and bake your favorite foods.
Some might think the “best” roast chicken means “most efficient without sacrificing juicy meat,” while others might think “best” is the one that you won’t be able to stop thinking about for years, no matter how long it takes in a sous vide bag. When writer Ella Quittner (creator of Food52’s “Absolute Best Tests”) is cooking or baking something, she cannot rest until she’s tested every method she can to arrive at the best result. Even if that means traveling to Tokyo to learn the trick to extra juicy tsukune for her tender meatballs or spending time in the Alabama Black Belt gathering intel from the pros for her flakiest biscuits. 
In Obsessed with the Best, Ella walks you through the results of 24 head-to-head tests of cooking methods to help you find the perfect choice for your palate. From these building blocks, Ella shares more than 100 recipes, grounding you in minimalist techniques that maximize flavor, and sharing creative options as jumping off points for your own favorite flavors. Recipes include:

• Under-Pressure Flaky Biscuits, Fluffy No-Special-Equipment Buttermilk Pancakes, and a failproof Caramelized Shallot Soft Scrambled Eggs with Comté
• Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Insurance Cheese, Rigatoni with Vodka “All’Amatriciana,” and more than a dozen optimized veggies, like Braised Tomato-Butter Cabbage. 
• Entrées like Triple-Secret Tender Meatballs, One-Hour Roast Chicken, Opulent Slow-Roasted Chicken, and Lemon-Butter Cold-Poached Shrimp
• Sweets like Overachiever Extra Brown Butter Bakery-Worthy Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Soft & Tender Yellow Cake, and Actually Manageable French-ish Buttercream

Punctuated with reported essays on people, places, or things obsessed with “the best”—be it a bacon evangelist from Iowa who flies annually all the way to Kofu, Japan, to throw a “Porktober Fest” in the middle of a seasonal celebration of a feudal lord, or an international spin through different pasta-making methods from Osaka to Tuscany—Obsessed with the Best is precise, informative, personal, and fun in equal measure.

Product details

• Authors: Ella Quittner
• Publisher: William Morrow
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 04.11.2025
• EAN: 9780063357686
• ISBN: 978-0-06-335768-6
• No. of pages: 384
• Dimensions: 202 mm x 254 mm x 28 mm
• Subjects: Guides > Food & drink > General cookery books, basic cookery books; TRAVEL: Essays & Travelogues, COOKING: Essays & Narratives, COOKING: Methods / General, COOKING: Reference, COOKING: Specific Ingredients / General, TRAVEL: Special Interest / Culinary, COOKING: Regional & Cultural / American / General