Gjelina Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from Venice, California | Italian-Inspired Dishes for Home Cooking & Entertaining

This Venice, California restaurant is doing things with grains and vegetables that have attracted nationwide attention. Some of our customers have gone so far as to call chef Travis Lett's first book a West Coast version of Ottolenghi for its nimble imagination and command of flavors from a deep bench of cuisines.

The food here is not strictly-speaking vegetarian as meat does have a small part to play, but there's no mistaking Lett's grasp of what to do with the bounty of the earth: seared okra with black olives, tomato confit, pine nuts and chile; wild rice with chorizo, walnuts, and pomegranate; green beans with smoked almonds, shallot confit and preserved lemon.

Color photographs throughout. Hardcover.