Cookbooks

Thomas Keller is best known for the artistically inspired dishes he dreams up for his Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry. In Ad Hoc At Home (Artisan, $50) he turns his culinary expertise to comfort food. Recipes include family favorites like beef Stroganoff, chicken pot pie, flaky biscuits, and cherry pie. In full color with step-by-step instructions, he demonstrates the best way to truss a chicken, how to form a perfect hamburger, even a recommended way to dress a salad. Unlike his previous books which, while beautiful, were intimidating to most home cooks, Ad Hoc at Home is user-friendly and full of dishes that are likely to become familiar additions to cooks’ repertoires. Mark LaFramboise

The ideal cookbook? It has beautiful presentation, with a clear layout and lovely pictures. It’s by a fine chef or well known cookbook writer. It takes you to a place and gives you a feel for the people and the food of that place. John Besh, Food and Wine’s Best New Chefs a decade ago and winner of the James Beard award three years ago, is executive chef of several New Orleans restaurants, and his first book is a welcome treat. My New Orleans (Andrews McMeel, $45) contains 200 recipes, from Crawfish Etouffé to Beignets—the city’s signature dishes—along with Grilled Oysters, Spicy Garlic Butter, and Bourbon Pecan Pie. Is your mouth watering yet? As much as this book is about food, it’s also about a place that’s an amalgam of many cultures. From shrimping to crab season, from duck hunting to picking blackberries, this beautiful book takes us on an excursion into one of our great cities and great food cultures. Deb Morris