Cookbooks

When SFMOMA presented the first Francesca Woodman retrospective in the United States in over two decades, I was excited to immerse myself in the work of another influential female photographer whom I studied in college. I love Woodman's juxtaposition of textures, her way of placing soft and vulnerable human forms in withered, deteriorating environments. My plan was to base a dessert on a photograph with this type of contrast. Of all of the images in the show, the one of the artist wearing a Victorian-style floral coat and flowing dress while posing in a crumbling room was my favorite. At the time the Woodman retrospective opened, I had just returned from a vacation in Scandinavia where I would have been happy to live on only Norwegian hardtack, rye bread, soft cheeses, and smoked salmon. The combination of hearty rusticity and soft refinement of these foods were like elements in the Woodman photo: I saw the crumbling room as a cracker made with whole wheat and rye; her flowing skirt as soft cheese; and the pattern on her coat as beautiful, delicate edible flowers. To create a tender cracker with the heartiness of my Norwegian inspiration, I used two types of rustic flour and incorporated the butter using the same technique that's used to make flaky pie dough. A little bit of yogurt added tang and tenderness to the cracker. To slather onto the crackers, I wanted a soft-textured fresh cheese that was simple to make in our tiny kitchen. Ricotta cheese was just the type. A sprinkling of colorful edible flowers from Leah's garden and a touch of black Hawaiian sea salt perfected the rustic-elegant presentation of the Woodman Cheese and Crackers.

The most dainty and cute of the three, this little pink cake was the one that propelled me into a life in cake making and was the original inspiration for the cakes I made at Miette. For the SFMOMA, I make the Thiebaud Pink Cake pink by cooking down strawberry syrup and adding it to the buttercream, and I top the frosted cake with either a red buttercream dot or a big, ripe raspberry if they're in season. I use lemon curd in the filling because, being the giant kid that I am, I love the combination of strawberry and lemon in a dessert—to me, it always tastes like Froot Loops.

In 2010, Ruth Laskey, a talented artist who weaves hand-dyed threads into graphic shapes, was one of the Bay Area artists chosen for the biennial SECA (Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art) award and whose work would be featured at SFMOMA. She also happened to be Leah's classmate from the California College of the Arts. Thrilled to collaborate with an artist as she produced her work, we arranged a studio visit to see the weavings Ruth was creating for the show. She had a series of six sketches, each with two intersecting shapes of different colors, and she had started weaving the pieces based on her sketches. I suggested assigning a flavor to each color, and where the colors overlapped, so would the flavors. We decided that a liquid of one flavor chilled with ice cubes of a second flavor would be an interesting approach: as the ice cubes melted, the flavors would slowly overlap. My good friend Paul Einbund, an extraordinary sommelier and a genius at making seasonal sodas, taught us how to make a concentrated syrup by muddling an ingredient with sugar, adding cold water, and then chilling the mixture to allow the flavor to infuse. When sparkling water is added to the concentrate, the result is a lightly sweetened soda with pure flavor. Leah discovered that just about anything could be given this treatment—from fresh fruit and herbs to licorice candy, and even bubblegum—giving us limitless options for homemade sodas. I like to use standard Eureka lemons in this recipe because I prefer their classic, extra-sour flavor, but Meyer lemons will also work. We created a soda and ice cube combination for each of the six weavings created for the SECA exhibition, from her larger twill series, and rotated through them on a daily basis: peppermint soda with licorice ice cubes for the blue/black weaving, green pepper soda with orange blossom ice cubes for the orange/green, chokecherry soda with rose ice cubes for the two-toned pink weaving, bubblegum soda with violet ice cubes for the pink/purple, hibiscus soda with eucalyptus ice cubes for the magenta/green, and lemon soda with bay ice cubes for the yellow/green. We served each drink on a custom wood tray made for us by the installation crew at the SFMOMA. Stained to match the frames around Ruth's weavings, the tray held the glass and two small vials containing threads used in the artwork that had been scented to correspond with the flavors in the drink. With visual, taste, and olfactory components, the Laskey sodas offered guests a multisensory experience and a direct connection to the art, and they were our most conceptual creations to date.

I use simple syrup for keeping cake layers extra moist. Plain simple syrup works perfectly well on its own, but when I have used vanilla bean pods on hand, I like to steep them into the syrup (feel free to keep them stored in the syrup indefinitely). It's an unnecessary step, for sure, but I always welcome a little extra pop of vanilla flavor in my cakes.

These wraps work well as a dinner party dish—either as a starter or as a main course with side dishes, such as warm potato salad or sautéed leeks with zucchini, alongside. You can assemble them beforehand and then bake them when your guests arrive, making for a more relaxing evening for you.

This is a loaf cake that my mum liked to make and it remains a firm favorite of mine. The lemon syrup poured over the freshly baked cake seeps down into the sponge and adds a special moisture to the taste. Perfect to have with a cup of tea in the afternoon.

This is the baked terrine I like to make for Sunday lunch, served with all the traditional trimmings of roast vegetables, steamed greens, and Yorkshire puddings . Leftovers can be reheated and served midweek with gravy, steamed green beans, and a generous spoonful of horseradish on the side.

My husband taught me how to make Yorkshire puddings, and now I am hooked. I like to make them as individual puddings, baked in a non-stick muffin tin, but you can also make one large pudding in a high-sided pan and then cut it into portions. As a child, my dad used to eat them as a sweet dessert—you follow the same recipe, but finish off by pouring warm honey over the top. Comfort food at its best.

Whether you're preparing for a casual dinner party or snacks for the office, our Spicy Soy Nut-Pretzel Mix can be made in advance and kept covered with plastic wrap for up to a day. Truth be told, we don't think it will last that long at your house—this addictive snack tends to disappear quickly!

Nutritional note from Junelle Lupianai: "This bar is a perfect mid-afternoon snack to bring with you to work or for your children." The oats and cereal provide whole-grain goodness, and the nuts and seeds provide plant protein and fat. Flaxseed meal is included here for its nutritional punch, but it’s optional.

A delightful option for a mid-morning snack or brunch, our Teff Banana Bread is also gluten-free and dairy-free. We slice ours with a serrated knife, first lengthwise down the middle and then across into 12 slices, for a total of 24 one-ounce servings per loaf.

Everyone needs one quick, easy, go-to recipe that looks and tastes like a million bucks. These eggs work like a charm: the fragrant truffle oil adds rich, sexy appeal, and a sprinkle of black lava salt lends an elegant finish. Make them super bling by adding a tiny flake of edible 24k gold leaf to each.

With the help of barman Euclides López, I fashioned a Mexican rendition of Audrey Saunders's French Pearl using two staples of Puebla cuisine: mezcal and fresh oregano.

El Molino refers to the "mill" used to grind fresh-roasted cocoa beans into chocolate.

Kids and grown-ups alike will be charmed by the Seussian whimsy of these delicious deviled eggs; Sam-I-Am won't have to ask you twice whether you'd like these! If you have a favorite pesto recipe, by all means, use it in the filling.

Cake doughnuts are fried, not baked, at your local doughnut shop. But this recipe bakes up just as delicious, and cleanup is far easier, not to mention a bit less guilt-inducing. This batter also bakes up beautifully in an electric doughnut maker. Note: To get the proper doughnut shape when baking cake doughnuts, you do need a doughnut pan with a rounded bottom to each cup and a post through the middle. Baking them on a flat baking sheet will result in flat-bottomed half-doughnuts. If you don't have a doughnut pan, you can make the same batter and bake it in a muffin tin for doughnut-flavored muffins. The batter also works great with a mini-muffin pan for bite-size treats.

With the rise of the Italian and Portuguese populations in Rhode Island's fishing communities in the middle of the nineteenth century came the introduction of the tomato into traditional clam chowder. By the twentieth century, this new version came to be called Manhattan clam chowder (some historians say that it was also called Coney Island clam chowder and Fulton Market clam chowder). It is believed that disdainful New Englanders named the red-stained chowder after Manhattan because they believed New Yorkers were the only ones crazy enough to add tomato to a pristine white chowder.