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.

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.

In Washington, DC, political rivals disagree on just about everything, but there is widespread bi-partisan support for the city's restaurant scene. The nation's capital and neighboring suburbs boast premier restaurants and inspired chefs who bring even the most hardened adversaries, to the table. Now, everyone, inside and outside the beltway, can savor a taste of the best Washington has to offer. With tantalizing recipes from more than 50 of the capital's most celebrated chefs and 100 beautiful full-color photographs, Washington, DC Chef's Table is a feast for the eyes as well as the palate.

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.

It’s become less of a trend to talk about how trendy the Brooklyn dining scene is, and just an accepted fact that from Crown Heights to Mill Basin, Prospect Heights to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn is home to some of the best and most varied and most destination-worthy restaurants, not just in New York City, but throughout the entire country. More than just a collection of recipes, Brooklyn Chef’s Table uncovers a Brooklyn expressed through that glorious medium, food. By reading the stories of the members of Brooklyn’s restaurant community, the ones that grew up here and never left, or that came from other countries in search of a dream, or merely migrated across the bridge in order to better articulate their craft, you’ll discover Brooklyn as it was, Brooklyn as it is, and Brooklyn as it will be, far into the foreseeable future. With recipes for the home cook from 60 of the borough's most celebrated eateries and showcasing over 200 full-color photos featuring mouth-watering dishes, famous chefs, and lots of local flavor, Brooklyn Chef's Table is the ultimate gift and keepsake cookbook for both tourists and New Yorkers.

Celebrating Seattle’s best restaurants and eateries with recipes and photographs Hot chefs are setting the Seattle restaurant scene ablaze. With innovative ideas and culinary surprises, the city’s most heralded restaurants and eateries continue adding spark to an already sizzling food scene. From James Beard winners Holly Smith and Maria Hines to Chris Mills, who competed on the original Japanese Iron Chef in Tokyo, and restaurants like Volterra, which Rachael Ray named one of her “favorite restaurants in the world,” the Emerald City is filled with celebrity chefs, heralded restaurants, and Food Network star eateries that serve up delicious cuisine to locals and tourists. Seattle Chef’s Table is the first cookbook to gather Seattle’s best chefs and restaurants under one cover. Profiling signature “at home” recipes from almost fifty legendary dining establishments, the book is also a celebration of the growing sustainable food movement in the Pacific Northwest. With full-color photos throughout highlighting fabulous dishes, famous chefs, and Seattle landmarks, it is the ideal ode to the city’s coveted food culture and atmosphere.

Pittsburgh was once a beleaguered steel town, but has transformed into a place that people are talking about—in only the best ways possible. The cuisine here is also evolving. Pittsburgh restaurant legends have laid a solid culinary foundation, encouraging a continuous stream of newbies to take risks applauded by stomachs everywhere! Creativity and sustainability are on the rise, but most importantly, the Pittsburgh food scene has remained unpretentious and relatable. The variety available runs the gamut of cuisine, flavor, and price, allowing both novice and expert foodies to experience culinary bliss. With recipes for the home cook from over 50 of the city's most celebrated eateries and showcasing over 200 full-color photos featuring mouth-watering dishes, famous chefs, and lots of local flavor, Pittsburgh 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.