Finalist, James Beard Foundation Award, Baking & Dessert (2013)

Since 2003, Valerie Gordon has provided Angelenos with award-winning sweets and baked goods from her boutique in Silverlake and her booths at the Santa Monica and Hollywood farmers’ markets. With two restaurants opening in 2013 and this comprehensive cookbook filled with her beloved recipes, now even more people can eat and bake the Valerie way. Favorite desserts like petits fours, cakes, truffles, and cookies have been perfected with the addition of candied rose petals, atomized chocolate, fleur de sel, matcha tea, and other special ingredients. Valerie re-creates desserts from Los Angeles’s lost restaurants such as Chasen’s and the Brown Derby; she simplifies the process of making jam; she provides an accessible way to mix and match components so readers can design their own luscious cakes and pies. Filled with helpful tricks, recipes for a range of tastes, and gorgeous full-color photographs, Sweet is destined to become every baker’s favorite cookbook