Margaritaville: The Cookbook

Margaritaville’s concept chef Sernaglia and cookbook author Turshen (Small Victories) offer 125 official Margaritaville-brand recipes that are festive and easy to prepare. Perfect for entertaining, the recipes are mashups of global tropical cuisines with “Gulf Coast Florribean roots.” Seafood lovers will delight in the appetizers, with options for crab, shrimp, oysters, octopus, and conch (ceviches and frittered). Soups and salads include gazpachos, seared tuna, and chowders. New Orleans muffaletta, blackened fish, and stuffed burgers are hearty sandwiches (and, yes, there’s a recipe for Cheeseburgers in Paradise), joined by several steak options, a jambalaya, and guava-glazed baby back barbecued ribs for mains. Along with sides of cilantro lime coleslaw and lobster hash browns topped with jalapeño cheese, there are rum, coconut, and tropical fruit–laced desserts such as Crispy Bananarama, a deep-fried taco strudel. Not surprisingly, the book contains several cocktail and margarita options. Jimmy Buffett fans will undoubtedly enjoy this cookbook, and even non-parrotheads will find lots of solid, go-to recipes. Kari Stuart and Esther Newberg, ICM. (May)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misspelled Kari Stuart's name and misidentified Julia Turshen as a James Beard award winner.