Bright cooking Recipes for the modern palate

The aim of restaurateur Becerra's ambitious debut is to teach readers new ways of flavoring nourishing foods, but while the recipes are certainly creative, for many they will be out of reach. The first section, titled "Elements," includes sauces, pickles, stocks, pastes, and other pantry staples to be used in dishes featured in the following section. Her citronette (a citrus-based vinaigrette), for example, dresses both the collard green and peach summer salad and the shaved mushroom, dandelion, and petal salad. Becerra also lists uses for the pantry recipes that go beyond the book, noting, for example, that miso butter is tasty as a glaze for sauteed mushrooms. Salted cod puffs with green olive aioli are "a special apéro dish," while salt-baked vegetables with cacao seed mix promise to be the "pièce de resistance" at any dinner party. Becerra writes with an experienced home chef in mind, asserting that readers should rely on their own intuition and not necessarily follow her recipes to the letter. It's encouraging advice, but when so many of the recipes feel fussy and rely on difficult-to-source ingredients such as lion's mane powder and uni, it's hard to take it on board. Still, adventurous home cooks will want to try this out. (June)

Acclaimed chef, restaurateur, and former Top Chef contestant Becerra's goal in life is to make the world a better place one dish at a time. In her debut cookbook, Becerra sets out to do this by sharing her culinary philosophy that the "art of cooking and eating is deeply meditative and rooted in resourcefulness" and espousing a worldview in which each dish consists of a "star item, a sauce, and a flourish." Written with clarity and passion, the cookbook itself is divided into two sections, with the first part dedicated to 50 recipes for "elements" (i.e, building blocks such as sauces, pickles, stocks, and flavor pastes), while the second half focuses on 75 composed dishes for everything from salads (cucumber, plum, and ricotta with citronette) to breads (savory lemon focaccia) to lunchtime delights (customizable hippie sandwiches). Sprinkled throughout are instructions on building bowl-based meals, plus bits of Becerra's hard-won culinary wisdom on topics such as sprouting beans and using forgotten vegetables. VERDICT Anyone interested in committing to a more mindful approach to cooking and eating and who's willing to put in some time and effort will joyfully embrace Becerra's dazzling, flavor-punched collection of recipes.--John Charles