Simple Fancy: A Chef’s Big-Flavor Recipes for Easy Weeknight Cooking

The dream of most home cooks is to be able to realize restaurant-style dishes without fuss. Santos delivers just that with his second cookbook (after 2019’s Buttermilk & Bourbon) focusing on personal and professional favorites that are designed for home kitchens. Fans of Santos’s appearances on Hell’s Kitchen and Bar Rescue, among other TV shows, will enjoy his humor, personal anecdotes, and recipe origin stories. Santos provides plenty of basics including charred onion and blue cheese relish that can add spark to a number of dishes in addition to tons of hearty mains that are designed to impress. Fun and unique cocktails and desserts are included too. Multipage recipe spreads may be bothersome to some readers, but good flavors accompanied by bright food-centered photography make the layout choice a minor inconvenience. This is a great selection for libraries looking to add some verve to their cookbook collections.