"The Sustainable Kitchen" brings home the thrill of tasting fine cuisine made from the best seasonal ingredients grown locally. Designed for people who want to make food choices that promote the economic, environmental and social health of their communities, this book gives seasonal cuisine new flair, using recipes adapted for exciting home cooking. Its two talented chefs share their passion for the culinary arts and their regional focus that inspires home cooks everywhere to connect with local farmers and purveyors to obtain the freshest produce available. These connections encourage regional food supplies and a strong local economy, maintain community, foster earth stewardship, and protect the future of family farms.

"The Sustainable Kitchen" focuses strongly on ingredients, offering a chef's insights into how and why to combine several together into a sauce, soup or ragoAt for optimum flavor. The sumptuous recipes are offered as guidelines-the basis for inspiration, but not as absolutes-to allow for local market variations and a dash of spontaneity. Recipes include the full range, with special sections featuring entrees:

from oceans and rivers-seafood
from forests and farms-game, meat and poultry
from fields and gardens-vegetarian

Additional sections cover the basic tastes, tips for pairing food and wine, preserving the harvest, and "Notes to the Cook"-collecting useful recipes for basic vinaigrette, vegetable stock, crA]me fraA(R)che, pasta dough, and much more.

Stu Stein and Mary Hinds are executive chefs at The Peerless Restaurant in Ashland, Oregon, which they own together. Both award-winning chefs with national experience, Stu has also appeared as featured chef on the nationally syndicated cooking series "New American Cuisine "and has contributed to several cookbooks.

Judith Dern has won awards for her food writing.

John Rizzo's prized photographs have appeared in many cookbooks and periodicals.