When cooking, I often ask myself if the dish I’m about to prepare would be better with cheese. Same question for ketchup. More often than not, I end up using both. Why? This is the perfect, comforting bland and tangy combo. With toast, for example, you get grilled cheese and the ideal condiment. With macaroni, you get the classic TV-dinner.

But Marlena Spieler’s Macaroni & Cheese cookbook has me forgetting all about that bottle of Heinz. Her recipes have me tearing prosciutto into lean strips, smoking paprika, husking crab, turning truffles into butter, and cubing pumpkin.  The satisfying, savoury meals that result bear no relation to Kraft Dinner.

Spieler's Cheese-Lover’s Mini Guide is comic (there’s a section called "Big Cheeses With Holes") and the pasta guide is disguised as an Italian vocabulary lesson. But not to ignore her homeland, the US,  and its penchant for ease ...