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Magnolia Table, Vol. 2:
A Collection of Recipes for
Gathering
Joanna Gaines. Morrow, $35 (352p) ISBN 978-
0-06-282018-1
Gaines, HGTV host and cofounder of
Texas restaurant Magnolia Table, builds
on her bestselling Magnolia Table cookbook
with this solid, breezy sophomore outing.
The book opens with sections devoted to
foods made from scratch, such as pizza
dough, gnocchi, and rosemary focaccia.
Later chapters are primarily composed of
popular crowd-pleasers such as Cajun
shrimp sheet pan dinner, chicken
Florentine, and steak tacos with Mexican
crema. Other classics include arancini
with marinara sauce, chicken noodle soup,
and Philly cheesesteaks. Fans will be
delighted to find anecdotes throughout
(“For Chip and me, this soup always takes
us back to one of our first dates,” she
reminisces as she introduces creamy
chicken poblano soup) as well as recipes
from her Magnolia Table restaurant and
Silos Baking Co. bakery, most notably
zucchini bread, blueberry sweet rolls
with lemon glaze, and oatmeal cream
pies. Gaines also includes an in-depth
guide to fresh herbs, noting their flavor
profiles and common pairings, as well as
a list of reliable ingredient substitutions.
Given Gaines’s huge fanbase, this looks
like a surefire bestseller. (Apr.)
Taste of Tucson: Sonoran-Style
Recipes Inspired by the Rich
Culture of Southern Arizona
Jackie Alpers. West Margin, $34.99 (192p)
ISBN 978-1-5132-6256-7
Jackie’s Happy Plate blogger Alpers
celebrates the cuisine of Tucson, Ariz., in
this informative debut cookbook. Much of
the fare is heavily inspired by Sonoran-style
Mexican cuisine, and there are plenty of
classics on offer, such as chunky guacamole,
arroz con pollo, and Mexican street corn.
Other tempting dishes include caldo de
queso (potato and cheese soup), calabacitas
con queso (cheesy squash with corn and
tomatoes), and Sonora-style pico de gallo
(fresh fruit and vegetables seasoned with
chili and lime). Alpers also includes her
own fun fusions, like matzalbondigas (she
swaps the meatballs in the soup for matzo
balls), and a Thai-Mex slaw spiked with a
serrano chile. She also includes visual
This is certainly a challenging time to
be a restaurateur. How are you and
your team adapting to the Covid-19
pandemic?
Like a lot of restaurants, we offer
takeout. Some of our customers are
disabled, so we work with Meals on
Wheels to get them food as well.In your book, you
mention that your
mom was a killer
cook. How did she
influence your
approach to food?
My mom was a great
cook. And in a lot of
families, you’re eating
great the first of the
month. But by the end
of the month, you
better be inventive!
Sometimes she’d serve
us a plate and we’d
ask, ‘What’s this?’
She’d say, ‘That’s
called Out of the Cupboard.’ I think
that’s where I got my resourcefulness.
Once I became a dad I took my kids
out for fast food a lot. Then one day
my kid said, “Dad, you know you’re
killing us.” They’d learned that pro-
cessed food was bad for you at school.
So that’s when I started making
healthier food at home. Two out of
every 10 kids in the Latino community
are overweight. We try to offer a
menu that’s health conscious that
also tastes great.You cover all the taco classics in your
book, but you also have taco recipes
with jackfruit and falafel. How didthat come about?
In the movie industry, whenever you
wrap a TV show or a movie, 10 or 15
people will want to go out to dinner.
And you go somewhere and someone’s
left out. Somebody’s a vegetarian or a
vegan, and they’ll just get a salad or
something. If you come to our restau-
rant you’ll see that there’s something
for everyone. I also
work with autistic
children, and doc-
tors that work with
autistic kids have
said they don’t do
well with gluten,
so we wanted to
have options for
them as well.Would you say the
bar is higher for
Mexican food in
L.A. compared to
other cities?
Absolutely. We
have such an eclectic group of restau-
rants in Los Angeles. Because of the
border and where we’re at, Mexican
food in L.A. is much more authentic.
At Trejo’s Tacos, we’ve taken the taste
of Mexico and made it healthier.You have an image of Anthony
Bourdain in your book. What did he
mean to you?
Anthony Bourdain was a blessing. He
said that my restaurant was the only
place he’d eat in L.A. He loved the
fact that we had vegetarian, vegan, all
that, in addition to the usual items.
And he tried all of them! That guy
could eat. —Kyle Tonniges[Q&A]
PW Talks with Danny Trejo
Tacos, L.A. Style
In Trejo’s Tacos (Clarkson Potter, Apr.; reviewed on p. 72), actor and
restaurateur Trejo shares recipes from his L.A. restaurants.