January 6, 2020
Burns follows up her 2015 award-winning IACP cookbook, Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes, a collection she developed for the eponymous San Francisco bakery, with this unique mix of philosophy, creativity, and resourcefulness dedicated to local and seasonal cooking. Even if readers skip Burns’s essays on topics like the spiritual and practical qualities of water (“makes life possible”) and fire (“can alter the nutritional aspect of food”), the benefits of moon-cycle planting, or the fundamental methods for cooking meat, they’re sure to walk away with more than a few new recipes, many of which are well within the reach of even kitchen novices. Dishes like silver dollar corn cakes, a classic pot roast, DIY popsicles, and a brined whole chicken are all easily sourced and prepared. More ambitious readers will want to try their hands with yellow eggs with pickle-brined brown rice and crepes; turmeric-pickled scotch eggs; chilled five-spice chicken in aspic; smoked fish; and potato hand pies. Many dishes include tips on simplification via seasonal substitutions and suggestions for leftovers. Home cooks as well as professionals interested in upping their local, seasonal game will find a lot to like here.