cover image This Must Be the Place: Dispatches & Food from the Home Front

This Must Be the Place: Dispatches & Food from the Home Front

Rachael Ray. Ballantine, $32 (352p) ISBN 978-0-593-35721-7

Emmy Award–winning TV host Ray (Rachael Ray 50) gets personal with enticing recipes and stories from her home. When the 2020 pandemic forced people around the world to hunker down indoors, Ray’s only choice was to “let the world into my most private space, and record our show from my home.” Out of that time came some delicious recipes, but also the devastation of losing her home in upstate New York that summer to a fire. “This book,” she writes, “offers dispatches from what felt like the edge of reality.” Luckily for readers, there’s plenty of comfort to be found in Ray’s lighthearted stories—from moving into the guesthouse to enjoying Zoom “cook-alongs” with friends—and resourceful recipes: “What can you do with canned tuna or beans?” she asks. “The answer is, lots and lots!” Among the star dishes are popcorn chicken with white cheddar popcorn (perfect for a date with the couch), eggplant schnitzel with whipped honey, and halibut with creole sauce. Peppered in are helpful notes, prep hacks (to halve the cherry tomatoes for her steak niçoise in bulk, she slices a cup of them at a time laid out between two deli cup lids), “foodles” featuring recipes charmingly illustrated by Ray, and cocktail recipes (including a “filthy, dirty martini”) by her husband, John. Fans are in for a real treat. Agent: Celeste Fine, Park & Fine Literary. (Oct.)