Excerpt from My Perfect Pantry by Geoffrey Zakarian

In this collection of 150 recipes, chef, restaurateur and Food Network Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian puts your pantry to work with 50 everyday ingredients and three accessible recipes made from each one to help people be better home cooks. GEOFFREY ZAKARIAN is chef/partner at The Lambs Club and The National in New York City, with restaurants in Atlantic City, Miami, and on Norwegian Cruise liners. He is also the culinary director at The Plaza Hotel. He is a judge on Food Network's Chopped, won season 4 of The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs, regularly competes on Iron Chef America, and was recently named chairman of City Harvest's Food Council.