The Mac + Cheese Cookbook: 50 Simple Recipes from Homeroom, America's Favorite Mac and Cheese Restaurant

This book is amazing, and an awesome starting place for a Mac and Cheese recipe. My wife and I have a bbq catering company and use this as the basis for our mac and cheese. The mac sauce is the most crucial part to successful mac and cheese, and they break it down perfectly with pictures, step by step instructions and even common mistakes. I have read other reviews where people complain that their mac sauce makes 3 cups, but every recipe in the book calls for 2 cups of mac sauce, so you end up with left overs. We just use all the mac sauce and it is fine, because then you end with more mac and cheese...which is the best result in the world. There are a few things that we change slightly when we cook. First is we use all the mac sauce, that way no left overs. Second, is we add more noodles than they call for. The recipe will say 1/2 pound of noodles, which is 2 cups (and this is for 2 cups mac sauce). I find this to be not enough, so here is the ratio that works perfect for us: 3 Cups mac sauce, 3 cups cheese and 6 cups cooked noodles. Last, the cheese is the most important part of this whole process. We have used everything from super expensive 2 year aged cheddar Tillamook cheese to mild cheddar, and if you are only adding cheese then it makes a difference (although we feel that there is no difference in 12 month aged cheddar vs. 18 or 24 month aged cheddar). With that said, if you start adding things to the mac-like bacon, green chiles, jalapenos or cream cheese-then just use regular sharp cheddar and you wont be able to taste the difference. This is what has worked for us and our mac is pretty bomb now, thanks to this! (By the way, green chile bacon mac is amazing, and sometimes we actually put the finished mac on a smoker and let it get a smoky flavor-holy crap. Its spectacular!) Also, the brownies are the best brownies I have ever eaten and we always thought that Ghiradeli brownies were the gold standard but we were horribly mistaken. The banana pudding is super good too. We love this book

Very simply full of tons of recipes that look amazing. I have tried about 8 or so and almsot all of them impressed me greatly. I'll change my review if my opinion changes after trying more, like any cookbook not everything sounded good to me, but I was able to get 15 or so recipes out of this thing that I want to try, and if I like those enough who knows I might just continue on and that was well worth the price of admission. My only tip, is if you don't care to make Mac Sauce (I tried it once and messed up and don't really want to do it again for what ended up being milk + flour + salt) replace it with heavy cream, also very rich, and when you're done and the sauce isn't thick enough just simmer it until its the desired consistency (or of course add less heavy cream). And if you decide to skip the mac sauce portion be sure to add the amount of salt they added to it (usually 1 tspn of salt), I made a recipe without and it was far more bland, they're completely right the salt brings out the cheese flavors.

Super fun book! This is comfort food at its finest! I would go so far as to call it posh or classy mac. They’ve got a recipe for mac sauce at the front that’s used in every recipe. Then they deal with the satisfyingly crunchy topping. Those are both universal recipes used throughout the book. After that they get onto the individual bowls of deliciousness. The chapters are as follows: American Classics, International Relations (mac from around the world), Chemistry (unusual ones), Extra Credit (sides) and Finals (dessert). And they give beer and wine pairings with each mac. Nice. Pictured below: 1) Gilroy Garlic Mac – p 39. Yes! We were lucky enough that the timing of our California road trip coincided with the Gilroy Garlic Festival. The whole town is filled with that intoxicating smell, and this tasted just like it. Awesome. They said this is their best seller, and I totally get why! 2) Jalapeño Popper Mac – p 26. Delicious! I always wanted to have jalapeño poppers for dinner.  3) Smoky Bacon Mac – p 34. This is fantastic! There’s a full quarter pound of smoked bacon and two ounces of smoked cheddar and Monterey jack in each bowl. People were happy. 4) Truffle Mac – p 63. Delicious. It’s filled with shiitake mushrooms and truffled cheese. My three closest grocers didn’t carry truffled gouda. I found both Italian truffle cheese and truffled cheddar at TJs. I tried the Italian truffle cheese and it was awesome. To my surprise, this is my youngest’s favorite so far. 5) Mac Sauce conversion. It makes 3 cups and the recipes all call for 2. I suspect it’s because all of the ingredients are in nice whole numbers if you do 3 cups. You can pull out that extra cup of béchamel for whatever you want, or just go for it, and bring extra saucy mac to smiling people at the table. Here’s a conversion table if you want to change the amount. Use column 1 for 2 cups, column 2 for 2 ½ cups, or the original on the right for 3. We’ve determined that 2 ½ cups is our optimum sauciness level. Some others I have flagged to try are: Vermont White Cheddar Mac – p 31, Macximus (spinach and artichoke) – p 43, Croque Madame Mac (ham, swiss, and eggs) – p 44, Mexican Mac (chipotle and chorizo) – p 48, Deliciousmacken (cheddar, mustard, onions, and pretzels) – p 54, Patatas Bravas Mac (garlicky potatoes and paprika) – p 57, Dungeness Crab Mac – p 65, Mac the Goat – p 67, and Pesto Mac – p 70.

We live within a 1.5 hour drive of Homeroom, where the authors of this book make their tasty, tasty mac and cheese. My spouse and I have made excuses to drive to the Bay Area just so we can hit Homeroom at some point during the trip. This cookbook saves us the drive, though I will say that if we're passing through, we'll probably stop. The spouse made the Gilroy mac -- my favorite dish at Homeroom. It was so creamy and delicious. The beschamel sauce -- or their mac sauce -- makes a big difference, according to my spouse. The book is cleverly designed and illustrated -- much like the actual restaurant itself is. It's also quite informative about technique to selecting the right cheese and noodles for the job. It also includes recipes for side dishes and desserts. We haven't eaten dessert at the restaurant, but their Brussels sprouts are the reason I'm now addicted to them, to my spouse's slight dismay. "Brussels sprouts aren't in season. Do you know how much they cost? Anyway, bacon is not good for you." Neither are these recipes. But if you're looking for delicious comfort food, look no further. Glad I bought this, ostensibly for the spouse, whose devotion to mac & cheese knows no bounds. Because my belly benefits too.

Excellent book, arrived well packed and in perfect condition!

Amazing cookbook with recipes that can produce the same entrees as the restaurant I used to visit in Oakland. The cookbook is a wonderful gift too since it has a great look and design. I actually bought two of these cookbooks, one for me and one as a gift.

Made several of the recipes so far and all turned out great! Instructions advise to make 3 cups sauce even though recipes call for 2, because making 3 is easier to work with. I use a small pan and have no problem making 2 cups of sauce at a time. Have been making my own helpful notes on some of the pages and if you fine tune recipes to your liking I'm sure you will do the same. For example: Gilroy Garlic Mac recipe for calls for 4 large garlic cloves. My experience making that recipe to my liking I noted to use 1 TBSP mashed garlic, +/- from there for people who love garlic or just want a tad hint of garlic flavor. The recipes are great as they are, but real world solid advice is also given in the book: experiment with recipes as a base to make some of your own creations. To me, good cooking is part science and part art. Use the scientific base equations (recipes), add your own touch of art (manipulate ingredients), and flavorful magic happens!

Love, love this cook book. It is so easy and the food is fantastic. I have so far made, the classic mac, spring mac, biscuits and gravy plus their carrot and Brussels sprouts sides. All were delicious and so easy to make. I have never liked Brussels sprouts but it said if you don't like Brussels sprouts you will like these and I was skeptical but they were right. My son who has never had Brussels sprouts helped me make them and I told him how much I disliked them he tried them and he said they tasted good and asked me to try. I was honestly scared too put in my mouth but was surprised at how delicious they were and the whole family loved them. I plan to make the jalapeno popper mac next to take to a super bowl party this weekend. I highly recommend this book, the recipe's, the step by step lesson plans and tips on salt, noodles and bread crumbs were so helpful and I wish there were more like this.