Grains for Every Season — Rethinking Our Way with Grains

Doing for Grains What Six Seasons Did for Vegetables

Grains for Every Season is Joshua McFadden’s companion to his acclaimed Six Seasons, and it applies the same bold, flavour-forward, seasonal philosophy that made that book a modern classic to a new and unexpected subject: grains. Where most cooks treat grains as a dutiful, beige afterthought — the plain rice or quinoa beside the real food — McFadden treats them as a vast and exciting territory, full of texture, flavour, and possibility. Subtitled Rethinking Our Way with Grains, the book sets out to transform how home cooks approach this humble staple, and it succeeds with the same generous, maximalist spirit that distinguished its predecessor.

For the many readers who fell for Six Seasons, this is a natural and welcome continuation, extending McFadden’s approach to a category most cookbooks neglect.

Grains as the Star

The central achievement of the book is to make grains genuinely exciting. McFadden builds his grain dishes up with the same techniques that made his vegetables sing — acid, fat, salt, herbs, texture, and bold flavour — until they become the crave-worthy centre of the plate rather than a forgettable side. Salads, soups, grain bowls, pizzas, breads, and even desserts showcase the range and versatility of grains in his hands, and the food converts the sceptics who think of grains as boring. This is whole-food cooking with real ambition, and the difference on the plate is striking.

A Philosophy, Not Just Recipes

As in Six Seasons, McFadden’s deeper subject is an approach rather than a set of recipes. He teaches how to think about grains — how to cook each one well, how to balance flavours and textures, how to improvise with what is in the pantry and what is in season — so that the book makes readers more intuitive and confident cooks rather than ones bound to its pages. Learn his way of building a grain salad or treating a particular grain and you can apply it endlessly. This is the mark of a great teaching cookbook, and it is what lifts Grains for Every Season above a simple recipe collection.

Seasonal and Versatile

The seasonal philosophy that organised Six Seasons carries through here, with McFadden pairing grains with the produce and flavours of the changing year. This gives the book a freshness and a logic that ground its ambition, and it reinforces the lesson that cooking with the seasons is the simplest path to better flavour. The versatility on display — the sheer range of what grains can do across a meal and across the year — is one of the book’s great pleasures, and it expands the home cook’s repertoire considerably.

A Focused Subject

Grains for Every Season is, by design, a focused book rather than a general reference. It goes deep on a single category, and a cook wanting an all-purpose cookbook will need to pair it with something broader. It also rewards cooks willing to stock a variety of grains and to engage with McFadden’s flavour-forward, occasionally involved recipes — this is not minimalist cooking but maximalist, in the best sense. For readers who embrace that approach, the depth is exactly the appeal; for those wanting quick, simple weeknight fare, some recipes will feel like projects.

For Six Seasons Fans and Beyond

The book is an obvious must for anyone who loved Six Seasons, extending McFadden’s distinctive approach to new territory, but it also stands on its own as one of the best treatments of grains in print. In a food culture increasingly interested in whole foods, plant-forward eating, and cooking with the seasons, Grains for Every Season arrives as a valuable and timely resource, giving a neglected staple the serious, creative attention it deserves.

The Verdict

Grains for Every Season is a worthy companion to Six Seasons, bringing McFadden’s bold, seasonal, flavour-forward philosophy to grains and transforming a too-often-dull staple into the exciting centre of the plate. It teaches an approach as much as recipes, rewards cooks who embrace its maximalist spirit, and expands the repertoire of anyone who wants to cook whole foods with ambition. For fans of his work and for anyone tired of boring grains, it is a genuinely valuable addition to the kitchen.

A Timely Subject

Grains for Every Season arrives at a moment of real interest in whole foods, plant-forward eating, and cooking with the seasons, and that timeliness is part of its value. Grains are nutritious, sustainable, and economical, yet they remain underexplored in most home kitchens, treated as a plain backdrop rather than a subject worthy of creativity. McFadden’s book corrects that neglect with the same ambition he brought to vegetables in Six Seasons, giving grains the serious, flavour-forward attention they deserve. For cooks looking to eat more whole foods without sacrificing pleasure, it is an ideal and forward-looking resource, demonstrating that healthy, sustainable ingredients can also be genuinely exciting. The book’s approach — teaching a flexible, seasonal philosophy rather than a fixed set of recipes — also ensures its lasting usefulness, equipping readers to improvise with grains for years to come. It is the rare cookbook that is both of its moment and built to endure, and it confirms McFadden as one of the most thoughtful voices in produce- and whole-food-forward cooking.

Our rating: 4.5/5 — A worthy Six Seasons companion that brings bold, seasonal flavour to grains, teaching home cooks to make a humble staple the exciting centre of the plate.

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