Book Synopsis

A stylish and modern guide to eating well while beating the heat, Eat Cool gives readers easy recipes and smart tips for delicious and satisfying meals that won't chain the cook to the stove on a hot day.

Vanessa Seder, recipe developer, chef, and working mom, has come to rescue summertime cooks with 100+ dishes you won't hate to cook when it's already hot as blazes. Inspired recipes focus on low- and no-heat techniques, make-ahead dishes served cold or at room temperature, smart seasonal ingredients to keep your body cool, and vibrant pairings of flavors, textures, and colors. Seder draws respectfully upon culinary common sense from across the globe, including Asian, Indian, South American, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean influences. Each recipe is designed for the home cook, to reduce labor and cooking time, and to keep kitchens cool and diners sated without sacrificing flavor or texture.

Eat Cool includes a family-friendly array of energy-rich breakfasts, wholesome bowls, vibrant salads, satisfying small plates, crowd-pleasing main courses, perfect summertime desserts, hard and soft drinks, and versatile sauces and pantry staples.

Winner, 2021 Aesthetic Achievement Award from Readable Feast

Review Quotes

"Thanks to Rizzoli, there's now a book for cooks who can't stand the heat but want to stay in the kitchen." --VOGUE

"Maine-based food writer Vanessa Seder's new cookbook, Eat Cool: Good Food for Hot Days, features recipes to keep you out of the kitchen this summer." --NATIONAL EXAMINER

"Is it rushing things to recommend a cookbook based largely on alluring dishes that are prepped and assembled, but mostly uncooked or barely so? It's spring after all and the incentive to prepare salads instead of stews is compelling. Vanessa Seder, the author of "Eat Cool," is a chef and writer based in Portland, Maine, who suggests recipes like a platter of judiciously spiced melon and cucumbers, scallop ceviche and an inviting array of tinned seafood. Other ideas include a green shakshuka, quick pasta with crab and chiles, a glass-noodle salad with lemongrass, fish sauce and seared ground pork, and a page of ideas for using a purchased rotisserie chicken. She has you use a stove and oven here and there, but not for a fruit pie because, as she explained in an email, baking a tart really heats up the kitchen. Instead, among her desserts is an intriguingly refreshing lemon semifreddo made with salted preserved lemons." --NEW YORK TIMES

"Inspired recipes focus on low- and no-heat techniques, make-ahead dishes served cold or at room temperature, smart seasonal ingredients to keep your body cool, and vibrant pairings of flavors, textures, and colors. Seder draws respectfully upon culinary common sense from across the globe, including Asian, Indian, South American, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean influences. Each recipe is designed for the home cook, to reduce labor and cooking time, and to keep kitchens cool and diners sated without sacrificing flavor or texture." --COOKBOOKJUNKIES.COM

"Vanessa Seder, recipe developer, chef, and working mom, comes to the rescue with 100+ dishes you won't hate to cook when it's already hot as blazes." --EATYOURBOOKS.COM

"I just cracked open a lovely new cookbook with yummy recipes that won't heat up the kitchen. While there are plenty of comfort food books out there with heavy casseroles to make, this one gets us psyched for summer when it always seems impossible to come up with dinner ideas." --HELLO LOVELY

"Eat Cool: Good Food for Hot Days, one of our editors' picks for the Best Cookbooks of the Month, is the summer cookbook to have for the hot days ahead..." --AMAZON.COM

About the Author

Vanessa Seder is a chef, food stylist, recipe developer, teacher, author, and founding member of the Portland, Maine-based culinary design collaborative Relish & Co. Previously an associate food editor at Ladies' Home Journal, Seder has also worked as a food stylist for television, video, editorial, and books. She is a regular culinary instructor at the Stonewall Kitchen headquarters in York, Maine. Her cookbook Secret Sauces received Honorable Mention at the 2018 Readable Feast Awards.