A fun and playful cookbook featuring retro, decadent, and kid-friendly mac-and-cheese recipes from the popular Oakland restaurant Homeroom.

Macaroni and cheese is one of America’s favorite comfort foods, equally beloved by kids and adults. It relies on simple, affordable ingredients, yet the options for customization and improvisation have revitalized its popularity in restaurants–even upscale ones–and with home cooks. Now, Oakland’s Homeroom restaurant, a perennially popular eatery with a menu devoted to mac-and-cheese, shares its secrets to the best-ever mac recipes, alongside recipes for easy sides like Brussels sprouts with bacon and old-school desserts like frozen peanut butter pie. The 50 recipes range from Vegan Mac to Triple Cream Mac, with plenty of permutations in between–like macs with stinky cheeses, veggie-lover macs, classic homestyle recipes like Tuna Mac, and international varieties like Sriracha Mac and Mexican Mac. With a primer on bechamel sauce, noodles, toppings, and beer/wine pairings plus an emphasis on quality ingredients and simple techniques, this affordable, colorful cookbook shows cheese-loving readers how to take the comfort-food staple to inventive new heights.