Thursday, January 7, 2021
GO! magazine — A&E in Northeast Oregon
BEYOND BANANA BREAD ~
7
2020 cookbook collection
Bill Addison
Los Angeles Times
(TNS) — Cookbooks are always about connection — written to share the love of a cuisine
or celebrate ancestry, or sometimes to eulogize broken bonds and safeguard history.
If you’ve run out of ideas or motivation for preparing your next meal, if you’re longing to be
somewhere far away or want to explore fresh approaches to comfort food at home, or if you’re
thinking about the broader context of food in our troubled culture, take heart and inspiration
from these standout books of the season.
Baking at the 20th Century Cafe
“Admit it,” begins the jacket copy of Michelle Polzine’s hefty, handsome book. “You’re
here for the famous honey cake.” Well, yes and no. The 10-layer version of the Russian cake
that Polzine serves at her cafe in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley, given mysterious depths by
caramelizing the honey and lightened by dulce de leche in the frosting, deserves its legend-
ary status. Honestly? I likely won’t bake this opus myself, nor roll out strudel dough thin
enough to cover a table, as Polzine instructs; I will go eat them immediately on 20th Century
Cafe’s marble counter the next time it’s safe to head north. But many other less involved and
richly gratifying desserts (cranberry-ginger upside down cake, sherry trifl e with Meyer lemon
mousse, black walnut and buckwheat tea cakes) make the book worth owning. So does the in-
domitable life force of its author, whose mischievous spirit shines as brightly in her sentences
as it does at her restaurant.
pastry chefs. Her baked goods and desserts sing of the region without sliding into stereotypes;
these recipes are honed but not daunting. Co-written with Kate Heddings, “The Good Book of
Southern Baking” is the kind of cookbook you’ll grab from the shelf, thumb through and say,
“I can do this.” Los Angeles photographer Oriana Koran stunningly captures New Orleans,
Fields’ kitchen style and (especially with the picture of Fields’ hand smashing a strawberry
cake on page 255) her wry humor.
Good Drinks
Non-alcoholic drinks concocted by our savviest bartenders have made quantum leaps since
they fi rst began appearing on menus under the wince-inducing label of “mocktails.” Julia
Bainbridge took a cross-country road trip in 2018, collecting recipes and tracing schools of
thoughts around the subject (a big one: imitate classic cocktails or no?) into a compendium
that considers every angle. Boozeless concoctions often lean syrupy. Bainbridge addresses this
head-on: “The tension between sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami is what the palate wants
in a drink whether it contains alcohol or not.” Organized by their time-of-day appeal, with
a helpful rating for the commitment level it takes to make them, these recipes bounce from
hoppy to citrusy, creamy to herbal, refreshing to intense. One favorite: U-Me & Everyone We
Know by former Los Angeles bartender Gabriella Mlynarczyk. It’s an uplifting mix of tomato-
watermelon-basil juice, simple syrup, lemon juice and a splash of umeboshi vinegar.
The Flavor Equation
I can envision Nik Sharma — a molecular biologist turned pastry chef, columnist and
author — lying awake at night, arranging and rearranging the elements of fl avor in his mind
the way Beth Harmon imagines moving chess pieces on the ceiling in “The Queen’s Gambit.”
In his second cookbook, Sharma invites readers to consider recipes through the lens of sci-
ence. Engaging charts on food pigments, aromas by chemical structure and the functions of
taste buds lead to chapters grouped by aspects of fl avor. Among them are “brightness” (spare-
ribs in malt vinegar and mashed potatoes), “sweetness” (saffron swirl buns with dried fruit),
“richness” (crab tikka masala dip) and “savoriness” (Goan shrimp, olive and tomato pulao).
EDITOR ’ S NOTE : Look for the second part of this article in next week’s GO! magazine.
Dense in information and balanced by Sharma’s color-saturated photogra-
phy, “The Flavor Equation” never loses sight of the most critical calculation:
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deliciousness.
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A Good Bake
AND/OR working out online
When Sadelle’s, a reimagining of a Jewish deli from New York’s Major
Fresh air workouts in the park while
Food Group, opened in 2015, the buzz hummed loudest over Melissa Weller’s
pastries: the exceptionally delicate dough of her rugelach, the crackling layers
weather is supportive
of her salted caramel sticky buns, her plush take on chocolate babka. Behind
the comforting sweets is a mind of science. Weller was a chemical engineer
Contact us at:
before switching careers, and she brings the discipline to breads and vien-
peaklifestylestudio.com
noiserie — and also to layer cakes and brownies. Which is to say: Don’t be
PeakLifestyleStudio@gmail.com
daunted by the length and detail of the recipes. Weller, who authored the
book with Carolynn Carreño, writes in a precise but familiar voice. When
she suggests letting the dough for oatmeal cookies rest in the refrigerator for
four days to achieve an ideal crisp-chewy texture, trust the process: They are
exceptional.
541-663-6404
The Good Book of Southern Baking
Gently sweetened buttermilk cornbread. Angel biscuits (and drop biscuits
and sweet potato biscuits!). Peach, blueberry and bourbon cobbler. Hum-
mingbird cake brimming with pecans, pineapple, banana and warm spices.
The world can use more top-notch Southern sweets right now. Kelly Fields —
owner of Willa Jean, a bakery and restaurant in New Orleans loved as much
by locals as visitors (which says a lot) — is one of this generation’s virtuoso
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