Shortlisted for the 2023 Taste Canada Awards

Recipes, perfected. A repertoire of reliable, classic recipes and fundamental techniques that deliver gorgeous results, every time, for cooks of every ability, in the tradition of Genius Recipes and Barefoot Contessa Foolproof.

Stop searching the web for what to cook for dinner. From the best roast chicken to the most sumptuous brownie, Lesley Chesterman’s perfected recipes have you covered—tonight, and always.

When Montreal’s favorite food critic, Lesley Chesterman, was approached ten years ago to write a cookbook, she laughed and said: “The last thing the world needs is another recipe for carbonara.” She never forgot the editor’s reply: “True. But I think they might like your recipe for carbonara.” That comment resonated, because carbonara, like so many dishes, is a recipe Lesley has worked tirelessly to get just right. Returning again and again to recipes and making small tweaks or big overhauls is what Lesley loves to do. And the result of a lifetime of tinkering is Make Every Dish Delicious, a cookbook that offers a repertoire of foolproof modern classics and a wealth of cooking knowledge to give everyone a helping hand in the kitchen.

Make Every Dish Delicious begins with deeply informative chapters on how to set up your kitchen and pantry, and how to work with fundamental ingredients and basics such as eggs, butter, stocks, and vinaigrettes. Lesley effortlessly demystifies multiple technical challenges (how to make an omelet, how to deep fry without fear, how to use—and not misuse—the all-important salt, and many more). From there, she takes you on a savoury and sweet journey of recipes encompassing modern classics such as her super simple carbonara, perfect pain de campagne​, show-stopping salt-baked bass, crowd-pleasing standing rib roast, stunning black forest cake, and gorgeous Gascogne apple tart.

Every recipe here is reliable, repeatable, and irresistible. Homemade no-knead bread and pizza dough? Yes, you can! Chicken Kiev (the easy way)? Of course! Cote de boeuf for two? Why not? Chocolate megamousse for a dessert sensation? Lesley’s got you. These are dishes to cook with total confidence for friends and family, every day. Let Lesley’s collection of perfected recipes become your very own.

Lesley Chesterman attended the Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Québec, before working as a professional pastry chef and cooking teacher in Montreal and France. In 1998, she began her career as a food writer, primarily at the Montreal Gazette as a food columnist and restaurant critic from 1999 to 2019. Her work has also appeared in Gourmet Magazine, The Art of Eating, Saveur, Nuvo, Food Arts, The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Wine Tidings, The National Post, Fool Magazine, New York Post, Eater.com, Le Devoir, and Caribou Magazine.
Since 2012, Lesley has been a food columnist for Radio-Canada and CHOM FM. In 2018, she also contributed to the production of the documentary 100 Ans à Table, focused on the history of Quebec cuisine televised on Télé-Quebec, on which she acted as host as well. Chesterman has also held several judging positions, including Gold Medal Plates, EnRoute Magazine’s best new restaurants, Cacao Barry’s World Chocolate Masters, and the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best list. She has also written several books, including Boulangerie et Pâtisserie: Techniques de Base and Flavourville: Lesley Chesterman’s Guide to Dining out in Montreal. Her latest, Chez Lesley, was awarded a Taste Canada 2021 gold medal and will be published in Fall 2022 as Make Every Dish Delicious.

Lesley Chesterman's profile page

“Essential and indespensable.”
— La Presse

“Chesterman is a food and media rock-star in Quebec, in both English and French.”
— NAOMI DUGUID, James Beard Award–winning author of Hot Sour Salty Sweet and Burma

“While I have many friends who write cookbooks, there are few from which I ever cook a recipe. But as soon as I received the French edition of Lesley’s book in October of 2020, within a week I had made her incredibly flaky scones, roast chicken (with a real twist), and of course an apple and a lemon tart! The recipes are articulate and easy to follow while Lesley’s voice, already familiar to countless readers of her newspaper columns, is clear and well seasoned with her sharp wit. Even if you think that you might not need another cookbook, you will certainly love Make Every Dish Delicious!”
— NICK MALGIERI, author of How to Bake

“Filled with beautifully written recipes for everything I want to eat, from maple-pecan sablés and chocolate megamousse, to savory classics like French onion soup and a Poulet Rôti that will transport you to France. Bienvenue chez Lesley . . . where you’re sure to find something delicious!”
— DAVID LEBOVITZ, author of My Paris Kitchen

“Among the most joyful, informed, surprising food books you will ever read. It will make you not only want to cook now, urgently, tonight, but also to improve the way you prepare just about everything. The recipes are brilliant but the book is so much more: it’s also a meditation on ingredients, the tricks and tips, and a testimony to the many years a brilliant cook has spent in the kitchen thinking hard about food. If you do not know Lesley Chesterman, you will be grateful to meet her here.”
— BILL BUFORD, author of Heat and Dirt

“Chesterman is not just a talented cook and a fine food writer; she also has the rare genius of writing recipes so clearly and precisely that even the most novice beginner in the kitchen can use them while more advanced cooks will find there’s much more to learn. From the simplicity of a vinaigrette to the complexities of a Black Forest cake, all is explained with sparkling clarity—and with good humor.”
— NANCY HARMON JENKINS, author of The Four Seasons of Pasta