With their Food52 website and first cookbook in 2011, veteran food journalists Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs explored the merits of collaborative cooking. On their site and in the book, bloggers and nonprofessionals share recipes, adding tips and shortcuts, so that each dish has a portfolio of intriguing variations.

It was inevitable that another cookbook would follow. Volume 2 is much like Volume 1, except that its seasonal recipes start in the fall, rather than summer, and seem to have fewer vegetables.