A lot of good things start out with a piece of toast. Breakfast, for one. But toast is also the entr e into the kitchen for many of us. It's the dish we first learn not to burn, or what we make when there is nobody around to cook for us. It's a reliable culinary introduction. But what comes next?

After Toast takes aspiring cooks into the kitchen fray. Kate Gibbs, whose grandmother Margaret Fulton had her making pizza from scratch before she could see over the kitchen bench, shows young adults what to eat and how to cook. Distilling culinary advice from her own upbringing, Kate offers must-know tricks for the new-to-cooking, modernises classics and inspires an interest in healthy cooking. Basically, this is a guide to real, really awesome, food.

Recipes for crunchy, fried Mozzarella-stuffed croquettes, French roast chicken, mini Cheeseburgers and proper salads meet ideas for sprawling weekend feasts. This book raises the bar for the packed lunch, serves up new ideas on snacks, shows teens and twenty-somethings what to cook for mates or Mum, and puts an end to endless fridge searches by answering the perpetual question, 'What can I eat?'