Simple stunning recipes for home cooks from the writer of the Repertoire column for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Home cooks don't need dozens of cookbooks or hundreds of recipes. They just need one good book with about 75 trustworthy versatile and above all delicious recipes that can stand alone or be mixed-and-matched into extraordinary meals.

That's what Repertoire is: Real recipes from real life that really work.

After nearly two decades in the kitchen and writing about food this is the way San Francisco Chronicle writer Jessica Battilana really cooks at home. These are her best recipes the ones she relies on the most -- for a quick weeknight supper a special dinner party when a friend drops by for a drink and a snack for the chocolate cake that never fails. The knowledge freedom and flexibility that comes from cooking these recipes is all you really need in the kitchen.

With a salad for every season pantry pastas many meatballs chewy cookies and more Repertoire puts the perfect dish for every occasion within reach.