Originally published: New York: A.A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, Inc., 1994.

This book is about the creative work of chefs at top restaurants in New York and San Francisco. Based on interviews with chefs and observation in restaurant kitchens, the book explores the question of how and why chefs make choices about the dishes they put on their menus. It answers this question by examining a whole range of areas, including chefs' careers, restaurant ratings and reviews, social networks, how chefs think about food and go about creating new dishes, and how status influences their work and careers. Chefs at top restaurants face competing pressures to deliver complex and creative dishes, and navigate market forces to run a profitable business in an industry with exceptionally high costs and low profit margins. Creating a distinctive and original culinary style allows them to stand out in the market, but making the familiar food that many customers want ensures that they can stay in business. Chefs must make choices between these competing pressures. In explaining how they do so, this book uses the case study of high cuisine to analyze, more generally, how people in creative occupations navigate a context that is rife with uncertainty, high pressures, and contradicting forces.

Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee! Niki Nakayama: A Chef's Tale in 13 Bites is a picture book biography that tells the story of the powerhouse female Japanese-American chef and her rise to fame As a child and adult, Niki faced many naysayers in her pursuit of haute cuisine. Using the structure of a traditional kaiseki meal, the authors Debbi Michiko Florence and Jamie Michalak playfully detail Niki's hunger for success in thirteen "bites" — from wonton wrappers she used to make pizza as a kid to yuzu-tomatillo sauce in her own upscale Los Angeles Michelin-starred restaurant, n/naka. To anyone who tells her a woman can't be a master chef, Niki lets her food do the talking. And oh, does it talk. Niki was featured on the first season of Netflix's culinary documentary series Chef's Table. And Chrissy Teigen proclaimed that Niki's restaurant was one of her absolute favorites. She's currently a featured teacher on MasterClass. A smart, strong woman with starpower, Niki is only just getting started — like the young readers who will devour this book, featuring illustrations by Yuko Jones!

An award-winning chef describes how he lost his sense of taste to cancer, a setback that prompted him to discover alternate cooking methods and create his celebrated progressive cuisine.

San Diego is a vivacious and active food community whose eating habits are unpretentious yet familiar, conspicuous yet simple. Famous for supporting a health-conscious lifestyle, with an abundant supply of fresh and organic products at their fingertips, the attitude of the chefs and diners alike is friendly and laid-back. From kitchen celebrities and James Beard recognized chefs, to those who simply just love to cook, priding themselves on being eco-conscious, using only sustainable meats and seafood, the restaurants in San Diego are quickly becoming enchanting places, suitable for even the most discerning of palates. The colorful California modern cuisine will tempt your taste buds with fusions of imaginative textures and flavors. With recipes for the home cook from over 60 of the city's most celebrated restaurants and showcasing around full-color photos featuring mouth-watering dishes, famous chefs, and lots of local flavor, San Diego Chef's Table is the ultimate gift and keepsake cookbook.

Very few areas in the world offer more diversity than the San Francisco Bay Area, a place that is without a doubt, “foodie central.” One reason for the major influx of the finest chefs and their restaurants here is perhaps twofold. First, the resident foodies love to eat out, not to mention the 16 million tourists that also visit here with food at the top of their to-do list. The second reason is perhaps the fact that the Bay Area offers chefs an incomparable proximity to fresh, local, and organic ingredients with which to cook, which anyone who cooks can tell you make all of the difference in the end result. With recipes for the home cook from over 50 of the area's most celebrated eateries and showcasing over 200 full-color photos featuring mouth-watering dishes, famous chefs, and lots of local flavor, San Francisco Chef's Table is the ultimate gift and keepsake cookbook for both tourists and locals alike.

Though the West was won years and years ago, the pioneer spirit lives on in Salt Lake City (SLC). The local food scene is ripe with opportunity and alive with food entrepreneurs filled with ideas that many thought would never take off in Salt Lake City?let alone fly. Salt Lake City may be known for a world-renowned choir and the Transcontinental Railroad’s Golden Spike, but it’s a modern, vibrant city that has held on to its pioneer spirit. And nowhere is that force stronger than in the local food scene, ripe with opportunity and ingenuity. The foodie community embraces collaboration and generosity, so local restaurants, bars, and suppliers—pardon the pun—feed on each other to reach greater heights. Entrepreneurs are serving everything from bone marrow to tumbleweed, while foraging for mushrooms and new ideas to elevate SLC and its culture. With 76 recipes for the home cook from the area's most celebrated eateries and showcasing over 200 full-color photos featuring mouth-watering dishes, famous chefs, and lots of local flavor, Salt Lake City Chef's Table is the ultimate gift and keepsake cookbook for both tourists and residents alike.

Celebrating Santa Barbara's best restaurants and eateries with recipes and photograph, Santa Barbara Chef's Table profiles signature “at home” recipes from 40 legendary dining establishments. A keepsake cookbook for tourists and locals alike, the book is a celebration of Santa Barbara's farm-to-table way of life.

The Twin Cities boast a culinary scene that features locally-grown foods showcased in both local specialties and a variety of international traditions. The cities’ chefs, several of which have been nominated for the James Beard Award, take the freshest ingredients from the season picked right from the local orchards or farms to create inspired dishes the lure diners downtown. With recipes for the home cook from over 50 of the two city's most celebrated eateries and showcasing over 100 full-color photos featuring mouth-watering dishes, famous chefs, and lots of local flavor, Twin Cities Chef's Table is the ultimate gift and keepsake cookbook for both tourists and locals alike.

Centered on the world’s premier winemaking region and renowned culinary destination, Wine Country Chef’s Table offers an intimate look at a region that thousands of travelers often just “taste.” It is a regional cookbook and travelogue, offering gems of recipes along with restaurant, winery, and farm stories to both locals and visitors alike. The book features great chefs, farmers, and food artisans from the distinct parts of the California wine country—spanning both the Napa and Sonoma valleys.