Cooking the Books, Winter 23

Chef Danielle Alvarez is not a household name but maybe she should be. With a crackling resume - including a stint at Chez Panisse - the Miami-born Alvarez has called Australia home since 2016, peerlessly helming Fred’s in Sydney to much acclaim. In her second book, Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking, Alvarez offers up a marvelous tome on cooking at home. Eschewing pricey cuts of meats and the usual luxe ingredients that find their way into a 'chef at home' book, Alvarez instead implores you to spend those hard-earned bucks on pantry goods, like great olive oil, cheeses, vinegar, tinned fish, and salumi. Impeccable produce should never be passed up either. Take her Fennel and Pumpkin Caponata with Mozzarella, an autumnal version of the Sicilian classic, studded with sultanas and capers, brightened with vinegar that brings out the sweetness of the root vegetables, as well as the lactic lusciousness of the fresh cheese. 

The massive slab of foundational cooking that is Sohla El-Waylly’s debut, Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook is impressive in many ways. Coming in at over six pounds and larger than your usual cookbook, Start Here is impossible to ignore. With its bright primary colors, countless procedural photos of dishes coming together, and El-Waylly’s direct but reassuring tone, it feels like a cook’s best new friend. Perfect for novices and those who can differentiate between a brunoise and a concasse, El-Waylly offers up recipes that span cultures and insight into techniques that are timeless if not always classic, all backed up by science and logic. The Charred Lemon Risotto is a study of starch cookery, Italianate austerity, and a very Sohla-esque zag on the Tuscan staple - bright, bitter, buttery, meaty (but made with water not stock) and oh-so satisfying. 

In the long-windedly titled America’s Test Kitchen: A Very Chinese Cookbook - 100 Recipes from China & Not China (But Still Really Chinese), Chinese food is brought to life by father-son Kevin and Jeffrey Pang, hosts of the Hunger Pangs YouTube series. Kevin is a lifelong journalist and an editorial director at America's Test Kitchen. Incredibly, this is the very first book by ATK that is dedicated solely to Asian, let alone Chinese food. Based on seminal dishes of the Pang household - Jeffrey is a retired businessman and an obsessed cooking enthusiast whose YouTube channel went viral years ago - what we have here is a very singular (and yes, very Chinese) collection of beloved family recipes that have been exhaustively tested and retested over and over again until basically foolproof and, in the Pangs’ estimation, may be even better than the original. There are timeless classics such as Wonton Noodle Soup, Mu Shu Pork and Mapo Tofu. But there is also a wonderful chapter called “Jeffrey’s Greatest Hits” that celebrates some wonderfully idiosyncratic dishes such as Hong Kong-Style Portuguese Chicken, which the Pangs lovingly describe as the “mac and cheese for Cantonese kids”, a mac-anese amalgam of coconut, curry, potato and tender poultry. Family style indeed.

 Acclaimed food writer, author, and recipe developer Yewande Komolafe, returns gloriously with second cookbook, My Everyday Lagos. A vibrant and thoughtful look into the history and culture of Nigeria’s most populous city, Komolafe offers up recipes that introduces us to the Nigerian pantry, 75 classic dishes, and the remarkable tentpole of flavors and spices that make the cuisine unique, while still reflecting the ecosystems of tradition beyond Lagos.

The Peppersoup with Short Ribs is alive with chiles and perfumed with scent leaf (or African basil), its broth rich with umami and fat, yet clear and fiery. Komolafe is as brilliant and generous a writer as the recipes she develops, and her new and necessary book should find its way onto your shelf. 

Looked upon as one of the “UK’s most treasured chefs,” Scottish-born Jeremy Lee of Quo Vadis has long been a north star for cooks everywhere. Lee authored his first book, Cooking: Simply and Well, For One or Many, during the strict and unrelenting lockdowns during the pandemic. What was to be a collection of recipes featured from the restaurant, instead turned into something lovely and strange. Plaintive and existentially warm and welcoming, it's a study of one’s own relationship with food and cooking. Lee’s recipe for Bramble Brûlée is barely anything more than a childhood hallucination of cream, brambles (blackberries), and a bit of burnt sugar. But it is a meditation not just on simplicity, but communing with the ingredients; the recipe not only honors them, but slyly cajoles them into something new, bouncing from the broiler to the fridge, before being indulged in with much pleasure. 
There’s not too much mystery about the charms of photographer, food stylist and author Yossy Arefi’s books, especially the last two - Snacking Cakes and her brand-new effort, Snacking Bakes. Simple and direct in concept and execution, Arefi’s books are a baker’s clinic on efficiency, purity and whimsy. These are low-lift recipes with high ROI in flavor, bulletproof home bakes that will lift spirits and not clutter your kitchen counter (only one bowl needed, Arefi promises). A stellar example of this are the Date and Pistachio Coffee Bars which offer an intoxicatingly rich and texturally engaging combination of its two hero ingredients along with coconut as the connective tissue. A real treat, and real easy. 'Not enough time' is no longer an excuse not to bake with this book.