The L.A. Cookbook: Recipes from the Best Restaurants, Bakeries, and Bars in Los Angeles

Got this as a gift for a friend. She absolutely loved it! She’s already made so many of the recipes and raves about how good everything is. Recommend for any foodies out there 🤗

Alison Steingold's "The L.A. Cookbook" is more than just a superb collection of one hundred recipes from a wide range of Los Angeles' restaurants, bakeries, and bars, one recipe from each establishment. Rather it serves as a homage to this city's current culinary diversity and excellence. I strongly recommend purchasing this book. I have lived in Los Angeles since the 1970s. I have been to many of Ms. Steingold's selected venues, often consuming the very item she has selected. Suffice it to say that she has chosen well. Her recipes cover the entire course of a meal, from cocktails and appetizers, through main and side dishes, and on to desserts. Each recipe is carefully laid out with many accompanying color pictures over which the reader can drool. To use just one example: the macaroni and cheese from Maple Block in Culver City. Normally such a dish would be too humble to excite me. Yet their version is so good that my granddaughters rank it amongst their favorite foods. Now that I have the Maple Block recipe, I plan to try cooking it myself. Thanks! Whether "The L.A. Cookbook" serves as a guide to which Los Angeles restaurants to visit, as a collection of recipes to try in your own kitchen, or as merely a beautiful coffee table book, it is well worth the price.

I bought this as a gift for an old girlfriend from L.A. I came away pleasantly surprised: The recipes are both creatively complex and, through; the photos, are excellent; and, finally, the book–despite what some of the reviews say–is practical and useful, perhaps more for an advanced cook. The author remained true to her vision and did not 'dumb it down.' We liked that it was refreshingly down-to-earth and not a 'glamorama' of celebrity foodie culture; nor is the writing and photographs a vanity hagiography through narcissism. I think the author took the material seriously, which shows in the details of the recipes It should be said right off the bat that this is not a 'home cookbook' but a Restaurant book, and presents a snapshot of Los Angeles professional cooking at the time. It never apologizes for what it is. Finally, it makes a convincing case for a singular L.A. food world that looks and feels produce-driven. "The L.A. Cookbook" functions simultaneously as a Roadmap, a guided tour, and a cookbook, in no particular order.

Bought it for a friend visiting LA. Great quality, nice pictures with stories and recipes of great restaurants in LA. I enjoyed going through it to ideas to visit recommended restaurants. Not sure if it’s easy to prepare the dishes they included but really well done and feel it’s a great gift.

The LA Cookbook has a fantastic compilation of the tastiest dishes from some of the best eateries the City of Los Angeles has to offer... what's not to like?! The book has beautiful photography and the Author's breakdown of each recipe is masterful and easy to follow! I love cooking from this book and everything i've made has come out perfect, delicious and completely kid tested! I really can't recommend this cookbook enough and can't wait to try a bunch of new dishes I haven't attempted!