Search for “clean” in online bookstores, and there are over 8,000 results in the cookbook category; the hashtag #cleaneating has been used over 43 million times on Instagram (with #eatclean and other similar terms in the same ballpark)

Julie Van Rosendaal's Dirty Food cookbook is a joyful pushback against this amorphous, abstract buzzword and its connection with ideas of purity and goodness. With recipes like Eton Mess, Sloppy Joes, Dirty Rice and Sticky Buns, Dirty Food contains a wide variety of dishes that celebrate the pleasure we derive from food, and its ability to bring people together to socialize, comfort and enjoy each other’s company—when it comes to food, there should be no guilt in pleasure.

Dirty Food is the first in a new series of small format, single subject cookbooks by Julie Van Rosendaal that aims to give home cooks confidence in the kitchen with versatile, cookable recipes that are useful, unfussy and easily adapted to suit personal tastes and the seasons.