The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook

March 19, 2018
Food blogger McLively’s enthusiastic debut showcases recipes featuring the unusual and exotic produce found at one of California’s most recognizable grocers: the Berkeley Bowl. McLively organizes the recipes by produce type: flowers, seeds and pods, spores and succulents, stems, and sweet and savory fruits. The leaves category, for example, includes recipes with chrysanthemum greens, stinging nettle, and opal basil. The ricotta-filled sweet corn, chive-stuffed squash blossoms, and fiddlehead tempura with sriracha crème fraîche make perfectly light and delicate appetizers; heartier dishes include falafel waffles with Armenian cucumber slaw, and hedgehog mushroom toast with crusty sourdough. Even McLively’s desserts, dishes such as lemony Buñuelos de Yuca (cheese and yuca fritters) and roasted chestnut chocolate torte, showcase the uniqueness of her Berkley Bowl treasures. McLively offers alternatives for each featured ingredient so readers can make their favorite recipes year-round with produce from their local markets, though it’s the specialty items that make this cookbook fun. The recipes are adventurous, but their execution is straightforward—perfect for those looking to cook outside their culinary comfort zones.