A Holiday Library for Cooks

Our selection of the most interesting new cookbooks

“Daniel Boulud’s Cafe Boulud Cookbook: French-American Recipes for the Home Cook” by Daniel Boulud and Dorie Greenspan (Simon & Schuster, $35)

Despite the title, one might expect a cookbook by a chef of Daniel Boulud’s caliber to be a source of dreams, a journey through Boulud’s culinary past that has little practical application in the average kitchen. One would be wrong. The recipes in this book, written by the chef and Greenspan, the author of “Baking with Julia” and “Desserts by Pierre Herme,” are surprisingly straightforward and accessible. While many dishes are time-consuming (though not technically daunting), a number of Boulud’s creations can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The book has four sections, each detailing a different culinary inspiration: Boulud’s life in France, seasonal ingredients, the foods of cultures both real and imagined and the vegetable garden. Within each section are soups, starters, main courses and desserts; recipes include serving and often wine suggestions to further benefit the home cook. Given such dishes as Jerusalem artichoke soup with sage croutons, sea bass en crou^te and candied yellow tomatoes, Boulud’s culinary combinations are as interesting as the stories behind them.