Tyler's Ultimate: Brilliant Simple Food to Make Any Time

TV chef Tyler Florence brings a direct, regular-guy charm to cooking that is equally straightforward, simple and good. In Tyler’s Ultimate, he offers 100-plus recipes for just this kind of food—-"ultimate" versions of dishes like onion soup, crab cakes and spaghetti carbonara, as well as more innovative fare like Chicken Paillard with Fresh Fig Salad and Blue Cheese, Grilled Leg of Lamb with Lemon Chickpea Puree and Greens, and Coconut Shrimp with Basmati Rice, Apricots, and Lime. His desserts, all tempting, include the likes of Chocolate Banana Bread, and Almond Semifreddo with Spiced Honey Dried Fruit. Many of the dishes in this concise collection reflect a thoughtful winnowing of ingredients and technique to produce food that is not only delicious, but can be prepared on a regular basis. Some of Florence’s inventions—-like Watermelon Gazpacho with Chile and Feta Cheese, which is entirely accomplished in a blender-—are ingenious. Photo-illustrated throughout, "Ultimate" is for cooks who want their kitchen work to be as easy as possible, but who also require good cooking—-dishes that capture fully their flavor potential. --Arthur Boehm