More Fast Food My Way isn’t particularly pretty. No one will ooh and ahh about the photography or the utilitarian design. Pepin also repeatedly turns to certain ingredients — anchovies appear in at least eight recipes.

For style, turn to Oliver’s book. Each of the 400-plus pages is filled with great photography and festive, colorfully presented information — even the index has pizazz. That said, Oliver’s no Pepin when it comes to fast and easy. Though Oliver introduces Jamie at Home saying, “It’s about no-nonsense, simple cooking,” more than a few of the recipes have ingredient lists that stretch down the page, many of which call for imprecise and rather nonsensical measurements, such as a “good knob” of butter or a “small wineglass of white wine.” ...

Malgieri, a pastry chef whose previous cookbooks have won a number of prestigious awards, knows how to boil what could be complicated instructions into clear steps. The Modern Baker isn’t necessarily a beginner’s cookbook. It’s a book for cooks who want to bake, but without unnecessary, old-fashioned steps. Malgieri includes some time-saving tips, but mainly it’s his clarity that will spare readers headaches.