We hung the walls with old French movie posters advertising the films of Marcel Pagnol, films that had already provided us with both a name and an ideal: to create a community of friends, lovers, and relatives that span generations and is in tune with the seasons, the land, and human appetites.

So writes Alice Waters of the opening of Berkeley's Chez Panisse Café on April Fool's Day, 1980. Located above the more formal Chez Panisse Restaurant, the Café is a bustling neighborhood bistro where guests needn't reserve far in advance and can choose from the ever-changing à la carte menu. It's the place where Alice Waters's inventive chefs cook in a more impromptu and earthy vein, drawing on the healthful, low-tech traditions of the cuisines of such Mediterranean regions as Catalonia, Campania, and Provence, while improvising and experimenting with the best products of Chez Panisse's own regional network of small farms and producers.

In the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook, the follow-up to the award-winning Chez Panisse Vegetables, Alice Waters and her team of talented cooks offer more than 140 of the café's best-recipes--some that have been on the menu since the day café opened and others freshly reinvented with the honesty and ingenuity that have made Chez Panisse so famous. In addition to irresistible recipes, the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook is filled with chapter-opening essays on the relationships Alice has cultivated with the farmers, foragers and purveyors--most of them within an hour's drive of Berkeley--who make it possible for Chez Panisse to boast that nearly all food is locally grown, certifiably organic, and sustainably grown and harvested.

Alice encourages her chefs and cookbook readers alike to decide what to cook only after visiting the farmer's market or produce stand. Then we can all fully appreciate the advantages of eating according to season--fresh spring lamb in late March, ripe tomato salads in late summer, Comice pear crisps in autumn.

This book begins with a chapter of inspired vegetable recipes, from a vivid salad of avocados and beets to elegant Morel Mushroom Toasts to straightforward side dishes of Spicy Broccoli Raab and Garlicky Kale. The Chapter on eggs and cheese includes two of the café's most famous dishes, a garden lettuce salad with baked goat cheese and the Crostata di Perrella, the café's version of a calzone. Later chapters focus on fish and shellfish, beef, pork, lamb, and poultry, each offering its share of delightful dishes. You'll find recipes for curing your own pancetta, for simple grills and succulent braises, and for the definitive simple roast chicken--as well as sumptuous truffed chicken breasts. Finally the pastry cooks of Chez Panisse serve forth a chapter of uncomplicated sweets, including Apricot Bread Pudding, Chocolate Almond Cookies, and Wood Oven-baked Figs with Raspberries.

Gorgeously designed and illustrated throughout with colored block prints by David Lance Goines, who has eaten at the café since the day it opened, Chez Panisse Café Cookbook is destined to become an indispensable classic. Fans of Alice Waters's restaurant and café will be thrilled to discover the recipes that keep them coming back for more. Loyal readers of her earlier cookbooks will delight in this latest collection of time-tested, deceptively simple recipes. And anyone who loves pure, vibrant, delicious fare made from the finest ingredients will be honored to add these new recipes to his or her repertoire.

Foreword by Alice Waters In honor of its twenty-fifth anniversary comes this full-color culinary celebration of Il Buco, one of New York City's most beloved restaurants, featuring more than 80 mouthwatering recipes and detailing the romantic origins of the restaurant's philosophy of sourcing the best prime materials, including olive oil, salt, vinegar and all that make the Mediterranean way of life so alluring. "This book holds the succulent substance of Il Buco's history, which has always been guided by Donna's acute intuition. Through these pages, we travel around the Mediterranean, from the vineyards of Umbria to the salt flats of Sicily, visiting the farmers, artisans, and winemakers in their element. And then we return to Bond Street, stories and recipes in hand, to celebrate life and everything possible at the melting edge of sizzling pans and the heart of Italy."-Francis Mallmann In New York City, restaurants, even very good ones, come and go. But there are a very small number of establishments that take root and continue to flourish, where food, wine, atmosphere, history, and all the makers behind the scenes come together in a unique alchemy to create an experience. Il Buco is such a place. For over 25 years, Donna Lennard has presided over an international-and ever growing-family of artisans, farmers, winemakers, chefs and regulars from her outpost on Bond Street in the heart of New York City. Since 1994, Il Buco has withstood the test of time. In Il Buco, written with Joshua David Stein, Donna shares her incredible journey from antique shop owner to award-winning restaurateur and taste-maker. She reflects on the iconic ingredient-driven, farm-to-table Italian cooking that seduced palates and earned the loyalty of notoriously discriminating New York diners. Donna also expounds upon the essential elements of good eating and good living she learned over the restaurant's nearly three-decade history. Both a cookbook and a deeply personal journey through the places and with the people who have influenced the restaurant's ethos the most, Il Buco includes the beloved best-of dishes from the kitchen's roster of now-famous chefs: Ignacio Mattos's Black Kale Salad, Justin Smillie's Bucatini Cacio e Pepe, and Sara Jenkins's Porchetta alla Romana, to name a few. It also includes profiles of the artisans whose craftsmanship evokes the warm Mediterranean patinas that have enhanced the restaurants' atmosphere over the years. Donna has dedicated her life to identifying, cultivating, and celebrating the essential ingredients of a beautiful life well-lived. Il Buco isn't just a place, it's a feeling-of warmth, of home, of ease, of love-and Il Buco allows any home cook to experience some of the restaurant's beautiful and inviting magic, creating sumptuous easy meals to enjoy at his or her own table. Accompanying the mouthwatering recipes and gorgeous photography are Donna's insights on what it truly means to live well and to eat well and tributes to food producers in Spain, Italy, France and other parts of the world, including dedicated chapters on the building blocks to a perfect meal: salt, olive oil, wine, and salumi, among others. Il Buco is a very personal exploration of what makes the heart of a restaurant and a lifestyle: a celebration of a true New York success story. It is a book about learning to listen to what pleases us, and a reminder of just how wide, wonderful, and flavorful the world is. Il Buco Locations: Il Buco (47 Bond Street, NYC 10012) Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria (53 Great Jones Street, NYC 10012) Il Buco Vita (4 East 2nd Street, NYC 10003) Il Buco (Ibiza, Spain)