Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Foster's Market Cookbook: Favorite Recipes for Morning, Noon, and Night

Rate this book
For more than a decade, Foster’s Markets have been cooking and baking foods made fresh each day from ingredients picked locally at the peak of flavor. Now Sara Foster shares more than two hundred delicious recipes, providing modern takes on favorite home-style classics.

The Foster’s Market Cookbook features old-fashioned ideas about how good food should taste and new-fashioned ideas about prep times and the use of high-quality prepared ingredients. Filled with eighty color photos, this is the perfect cookbook to refer to over and over again for everyday meals or for entertaining, whether it be for two or for twenty.

Before moving to Durham, North Carolina, Sara worked alongside Martha Stewart in the kitchen of Martha’s catering business. When she opened her own catering company, Sara kept her food simple yet soulful, trusting the complex flavors of seasonal ingredients. This same basic principle guides the daily offerings at Foster’s Markets in Durham and Chapel Hill. Each week the markets serve nearly a thousand customers hungrily searching out Sara’s innovative, new-style home cooking. And now food lovers everywhere will be able to prepare with ease sumptuous dishes such as Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Arugula Salad; Herb-Grilled Salmon with Fresh Tomato-Orange Chutney; and Risotto Cakes with Roasted Tomatoes and Foster’s Arugula Pesto. Also featured are a host of wonderful desserts, such as Lemon Chess Pie with Sour Cherries and Chocolate Espresso Layer Cake with Mocha Latte Frosting.

Featuring mouthwatering favorites from the market and dozens of helpful sidebars that discuss ingredients, techniques, and make-ahead tips, The Foster’s Market Cookbook provides all you need to know to make the most of every season’s finest offerings.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2002

Loading...
Loading...

About the author

Sara Foster

6 books6 followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. This author writes cookbooks.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
128 (52%)
4 stars
73 (29%)
3 stars
28 (11%)
2 stars
10 (4%)
1 star
6 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Andrea.
6 reviews
January 4, 2018
I’ve had this cookbook for years and still make recipes from it regularly! The balsamic roasted chicken is a family favorite and the almond pound cake has made me popular with many friends! All of the recipes are easy to follow and yet better than basic! I hope to visit the actual Market someday.
Profile Image for Tamra Lagrone.
19 reviews
July 17, 2019
I adore this cookbook - everything I've made out of it has been delicious. It's definitely a go-to when you need something wonderful.
Profile Image for Mary.
838 reviews9 followers
April 6, 2026
I love this book and regularly use recipes out of it. My first copy is falling apart and I had to buy a replacement copy.
Profile Image for Janet.
222 reviews15 followers
September 5, 2014
The Foster's Market Cookbook is a reliable, special occasion cookbook, filled with excellent recipes that surely convey a "wow" factor. Recipes are broad-based, to include Southern cuisine, currently popular dishes and traditional comfort fare found in every region--like Turkey Noodle Soup or Mashed Potatoes. What makes Sara Foster's cookbook unique is her masterful, personal twist on even the most ordinary dishes. With The Foster's Market Cookbook, you have access to the intellectual kitchen of an inventive gourmet caterer, whose food has been an established hit for years. Following her recipes exactly is more likely to give you a guaranteed hit than be an in-real-life experiment that might not translate outside of a test kitchen.

However, a caveat is that this isn't really a cookbook for everyday use or to get ideas for a quick, after-work supper. The processes may involve several steps and some of Sara Foster's ingredients may not be routinely available. In my kitchen, though, The Foster's Market Cookbook has become a go-to resource for those occasions where I want something different and special.
Profile Image for Yaaresse.
2,160 reviews16 followers
abandoned-dnf
September 7, 2017
Wow. It's seldom that I DNF/abandon a cookbook, and here I'm throwing in the towel on two in one week.

Some of the recipes look good, but two things made me lose complete faith in this books usefulness. First, there is the scone recipe that makes 12 scones and uses THREE STICKS OF BUTTER. That's 3/4 pound butter for those who don't want to do the math. That's insane. Now I love me some butter, but I could practically feel my arteries clogging just reading the recipe. Holy moly. And here people thought my biscuits were rich because of 1/4 cup butter to 15 biscuits. Sure, it's probably delicious, but it's also irresponsible. The second thing I saw that made me lose interest is a pork roast recipe that calls for the cook to pre-heat the oven, mix some ingredients, then let the roast marinate for several hours or overnight. Now that doesn't even make sense. A half-decent proofreader in a butter-induced coma from those aforementioned scones should have caught that bit of silliness. Makes me doubt the accuracy of anything else in the book.

Profile Image for  EmmaLee Haight.
71 reviews14 followers
November 2, 2010
This is my favorite cookbook. Pretty much all the food I make from it is highly complemented, especially the desserts. The breads, soups, sandwiches, and salads are WONDERFUL!!! With the hummus recipe I add another can of garbonzo beans and 3 cloves less garlic. I totally recommend this as a very good cookbook.
Profile Image for Sherri.
337 reviews2 followers
June 12, 2008
I use this cookbook and Casual Cooking primarily during the summer months when fresh ingredients are available from the Farmer's Market. In July and August, these two cookbooks have a prominent place in my kitchen.
4 reviews
March 11, 2009
Sara Foster has a wonderful approach to recipes and cooking and conveys this well in her books. She takes traditional Southern dishes to new levels using currently trendy seasonings - a good read and a keeper for the cookbook section of your library!
Profile Image for Lisa.
1,136 reviews38 followers
April 24, 2007
A great gift from a cool person (thanks!) who was afraid I'd never be able to make a decent oatmeal cookie due to past disasters.

I still haven't had the nerve to make them on my own yet.
Profile Image for Kate.
928 reviews52 followers
April 26, 2007
My favorite recipes:

Pumpkin Cheesecake
Cream Cheese Poundcake
Oatmeal Cookies
Pork Tenderloin with Dried Cherries & Rosemary
Garden Vegetable Frittata
Lemon Bars with Blueberries
Profile Image for Caroline.
303 reviews1 follower
May 24, 2007
Great southern recipes that aren't too hard, but they do require a lot of ingredients. Lots of good special occasion meals.
20 reviews3 followers
January 26, 2008
There's a great recipe in here for big, indulgent, coffee-shop style scones, and a New York style crumb cake that's made almost entirely out of crumbs.
Profile Image for Marian.
312 reviews10 followers
May 16, 2009
Very pretty pictures, looks like a lovely market experience. However the recipes were pretty predictable.
913 reviews
February 20, 2016
I didn't find many recipes in this book that I wanted to try. Not unappealiing, just not special or different enough.
Profile Image for Blair.
1,434 reviews
May 26, 2011
I adore this cookbook - everything I've made out of it has been delicious. It's definitely a go-to when you need something wonderful.
Profile Image for Lisa.
112 reviews3 followers
May 10, 2016
everything that i have made from this cookboo has been delicious! (except the apple pecan bars) the brownies super awesome!
31 reviews
August 14, 2016
This is a cookbook. So I can't say I read every page. But there appears to be some great recipes that's I wish to make.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews