Sunlight and Breadcrumbs highlights the beauty and creativity in making everyday food at home. After more than 25 years running award-winning restaurants, acclaimed Seattle chef Renee Erickson realized that she had started to lose touch with her creative side, which she had nurtured in art school and had always considered as key to her approach to cooking. In her latest cookbook, recipes are set alongside essays that connect the dots between creative practices and the food she cooks.

As this book shows, cooking can provide an outlet for meaningful personal expression, even when making decidedly straightforward preparations. Renee highlights the little, easy things that take a simple dish from nice to memorable—like the rich crunch of olive oil–toasted breadcrumbs on top of a hearty escarole salad—and persuades us to seek out and celebrate these details.

For anyone who has felt bored by the grind of weeknight cooking, is looking for simple-but-exciting food to make for friends and family, or wants to encourage more creativity in their day to day, this book provides an inspiring reset, full of prompts to continue exploring our kitchens and lives with curiosity, an eye for detail, and joy.