Cooking: Go-to gourmet gifts

When Alex Guarnaschelli finds something irresistible, she adds it to her personal collection of go-to recipes. That collection has been her constant companion, and with her new cookbook, The Home Cook, we now get to fold Guarnaschelli’s treasures into our own repertoire. Over 300 recipes are included and range from starters to sweets, condiments to cocktails. Guarnaschelli, the executive chef at upscale New York restaurant Butter, knows her stuff and knows how to give home cooks clear and explicit instructions for everything from her easy, use-on-everything Sherry Vinaigrette to a swanky Roasted Striped Bass with Barley, Pecan and Scallion Stuffing.

BOLD PLEASURES
Since State Bird Provisions opened in San Francisco, its talented chef-proprietors Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski have won all kinds of awards, including a Michelin star. With the publication of State Bird Provisions, their debut cookbook, at-home innovators can re-create as much of this bold, California-contemporary cuisine as they want—and I think most will want it all. Brioza’s signature dish—fried, marinated quail, the state bird of California, served over a mound of fragrant stewed onions—is a great place to start. Then try one of Krasinski’s famed “ice cream” sandwiches—sheets of flat macarons filled with frozen sabayon. Complicated? Yes. Worthwhile? Definitely!

ÉCLAIRS AND BEYOND
Just the words “French pastry” conjure up a world of sweet elegance, a world most often viewed through the windows of a fancy bakery. Determined to make these delicacies doable in any kitchen, Eric Kayser—a fourth-generation French baker, esteemed pastry chef and founder of Maison Kayser bakeries—shares more than 70 of his famous recipes, all expertly detailed with step-by-step instructions, in Maison Kayser’s French Pastry Workshop. Kayser is our inspiring guide to making madeleines, mille-feuille, the spiced cake pain d’épices or a show-stopping Paris-Brest.

TOP PICK IN COOKING
Deb Perelman has done it again! Smitten Kitchen Every Day is Perelman’s second cookbook, and it’s a “celebration of breakfast, dinner, cake, and everything in between” with more than 100 approachable recipes guaranteed to banish drudgery from your kitchen. Perelman is a self-taught cook and has never trained as a chef or worked in a restaurant, so she’s the perfect guide for home cooks. She truly loves what she makes in her tiny kitchen, and it’s a treat to cook along with her. Whether you start with a breakfast of date-sweetened Sticky Toffee Waffles, amp up a Wild Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie with porcinis, make Korean-fusion Sizzling Beef Bulgogi Tacos or bake Caramelized Plum Tartlets, Perelman’s recipes are always a delight. Hopefully there’s more to come!

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.