12 – SEPTEMBER 2019
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHELSIE CRAIG. ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOSH COCHRAN.
IF YOU ALMOST
BOUGHT A
TICKET TO JAPAN
FIVE TIMES
As a restaurateur
who has run kitchens
in Tokyo and New
York, Ivan Orkin
(of Ivan Ramen) has
been studying and
cooking Japanese food
for more than 30 years.
It’s his perspective as
a gaijin, or foreigner
IF YOU KEEP A
LIGHTLY FLOURED
WORK SURFACE
AT THE READY
Never have I
felt more tempted to
quit my job, move
to Boston, and beg
Joanne Chang to
hire me to work in
the pastry kitchen at
one of her Flour
bakeries than when
I had finished dog-
earing every page
of Pastry Love
($40, November).
Full of detailed
instructions and step-
by-step process
photos for trickier
techniques, like
shaping spelt croissants
or spiraling black-
and-white sesame
shortbread, it’s my
kind of textbook.
While there are
plenty of recipes I’d
be able to make in
an afternoon—seedy
breakfast cookies,
candied almond
meringues, ricotta pie
with berries—it’s the
ambitious
undertakings, like
choux donuts with
mascarpone cream
and sticky bun kouign-
amann, that have
me dreaming of flour-
dusted countertops
and industrial-size
stand mixers.
—SARAH JAMPEL,
BASICALLY EDITORIF YOU KNOW
WHAT WE MEAN
WHEN WE SAY
“THE COOKIE”
Even if Alison
Roman weren’t
a contributing
editor to BA
and one of my
favorite people,
I would still
be counting the
days until the
release of her
second book,
Nothing Fancy
($33, October).
It answers
the perennial
question of
what to serve
when people
are coming over
as only Alison
can: with legit
fun ideas and
unfussy recipes
(I’ve already
bookmarked
“A Very Good
Lasagna ”). Turn
to page 68 for
a sneak peek.
—JULIA KRAMER,
DEPUTY EDITOR(Orkin grew up
on Long Island and
fell in love with
Japanese food while
working as a restaurant
dishwasher), that
makes The Gaijin
Cookbook ($30,
September) so distinct:
Instead of trying to
write a treatise on
Japanese cuisine, he
created a highly
personal book about
what a Jewish guy fromNew York has soaked
up over the years. It’s a
good example of how
to approach the food
of a culture that’s not
your own with respect
and deference—and
oh yeah, it’ll make
you want to hop on a
plane to Tokyo, stat
(or run into the kitchen
to make his recipe for
soy-marinated tuna).
—ANDY BARAGHANI,
SENIOR FOOD EDITORA New Book forEvery Type of Cook
So many fresh titles to choose from, but where to begin?
Start by thinking about your own cooking
(and eating) habits, then tap into our team’s picksHome – Fall Cookbooks