In Big Small Plates, Cindy Pawlcyn, chef at more than a dozen restaurants including Mustards Grill in the Napa Valley, offers 100-plus recipes for her signature small dishes, to be served as hors d'oeuvres, starters, or, when combined, as a meal. Strongly influenced by Mexican, South American, and Asian cooking, these include the tempting likes of Asparagus with Shiitake Spring Rolls, Mussels and Clams with Andouille Sausage in Tangerine Broth, Fried Green Tomatoes with Spicy Rémoulade, and Black Pepper and Garlic Chicken Wings. The book also offers a small selection of sweets, such as Ann's Chocolate Biscuits and Lemon-Buttermilk Pudding Cake with Chantilly Cream and Berries, plus useful tips and menus that help readers match the dishes for various occasions. Readers also learn that any recipe may be increased to serve as a meal centerpiece.
Pawlcyn excels at recipe writing, so readers will have no trouble reproducing the dishes at home; chatty notes also offer comprehensive dish context while providing a sense of Pawlcyn's rather astonishing professional journey that began in 1983 and is still going strong. Her commitment to good food and enjoyment of the cooking process, implicit throughout, should rub off on her readers. With lovely color photos, this is a personal cookbook of the very best and most instructive kind. --Arthur Boehm
