When a Michelin 3-star chef offers his home cooking, it's worth remembering that, as David Kinch says, he started working in restaurants because he loved to cook. So this is not a book of quick, 20-minute meals. It's a book written by someone really likes being in the kitchen and feeding people. It is, also an imaginative and appealing collection of recipes that are within the reach of people who call themselves comfortable cooks and who enjoy food drawn from a wide range of cultural influences.

We'll also bet that you can take many of Kinch's ideas and run with them. He steams an eggplant before splitting it in half and roasting it, smeared in white miso. He serves a winter salad of persimmons, pomegrante and roquefort. He reinvents vichyssoise by using blanched romaine lettuce. His pork tenderloin comes to the table atop a bed of caramelized cabbage.

And that's the kind of versatility that makes a book useful in a cook's kitchen.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.