cover image New California Cuisine: Great Recipes from the Los Angeles Times

New California Cuisine: Great Recipes from the Los Angeles Times

. ABRAMS, $29.95 (175pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-1293-9

As Los Angeles Times food columnist Dosti (author of Tastemaker winner Middle Eastern Cooking amply demonstrates in this sampling of signature dishes of resident professional chefs, New California Cooking reflects the region's bounteous fresh foods and ethnic diversity. At Michael's restaurant, the traditional Italian appetizer of carpaccio is served with a Japanese twist when tuna, sliced paper-thin, is substituted for beef; ahi carpaccio is light and easy to prepare. Pasta with Szechuan spiced shrimp, created by Bob Brody of the Sheraton Harbor Island West in San Diego, marries Italian pasta with shrimp and spicy Chinese seasonings; and the gourmet deli Pasta Etc. offers il nido dolce, a nest of chocolate-flavored pasta cradling chocolate eggs filled with pastry cream. This cookbook dazzles the senses with 100 ravishing color photos of raw produce and such artfully arranged, imaginative delights as fillet mosaic with red-pepper sauce and three-color tamales with beluga butter. (March)