Chasing Flavor: Techniques and Recipes to Cook Fearlessly

In this excellent debut cookbook, New York City chef Kluger presents accessible, flavorful recipes adapted from those he serves at Loring Place, his Greenwich Village restaurant. Kluger excels in explaining cooking techniques, and some of the pro tips he shares include roasting vegetables on a rack in the oven to keep them from steaming on the bottom (as with his roasted cauliflower with a peach-apricot puree and nut vinaigrette); braising vegetables in their own flavor-enhancing juices rather than water; and coating baked croutons with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano so they won’t get soggy in a panzanella. Kluger’s recipes ask “why not?” and answer in ways that make sense, like sweetening a barbecue sauce with carrots and repurposing pickling brines in vinaigrettes and pastas (as with the pickled green tomatoes that dress the cavatappi with corn and chanterelles). Throughout, he pays respect to his mentors—Danny Meyer, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Tom Colicchio, and the late Floyd Cardoz—as he explains the techniques he’s learned from them, often highlighted in his “Takeaways” sidebars. With a refreshingly earnest approach to cooking, this volume will prove to be an asset to cooks of all skill levels. (Oct.)