Photo: Clarkson Potter

A year without a new Ina Garten cookbook is like a birthday without cake: it shouldn’t even count. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too long for the follow up to the 2016’s Cooking For Jeffrey. Cook Like a Pro is Garten’s way of bringing the technique of restaurants into her readers’ homes without veering too far into left field, and she, of course, does a beautiful job of it, very carefully explaining to your great-aunt in Minnesota and your friend who’s just learning how to cook why it’s important to use a healthy amount of salt, why sharp knives are essential, and other concepts as basic as reading a liquid measuring cup from the side and not from above. These techniques might be fairly obvious to the seasoned home cook, but everybody has to start somewhere, so why not with Cook Like a Pro and its recipes for bay scallop ceviche, short rib hash, and the excellent farro salad from Charlie Bird. Is Garten starting a home cooking revolution? Hardly. But she’s still finding new ways to package her particular brand of not-so-aspirational cooking after 11 sensational cookbooks and countless hours on our televisions.