The NoMad Cookbook

Starred review from October 19, 2015
This vibrant, eclectic cookbook by the proprietors of the restaurant and bar at the NoMad Hotel offers a bird’s-eye view of the quirky and fabulous offerings the restaurant is known for. In the spirit of a Prohibition-era “book safe,” the cookbook offers a host of recipes for snacks, appetizers, mains, and desserts. Simpler dishes include marinated tomatoes and salmon rillettes; more complex are the hot dogs with bacon, black truffle, and celery. Every palate will find something to rejoice in here. Appetizers, such as white asparagus with shad roe and quail egg, radicchio with Granny Smith apples and mozzarella, and tagliatelle king crab with Meyer lemon and black pepper, are simply stunning. Main dishes are equally mouth-
watering, though technically more demanding and full of rare ingredients; readers will be challenged by salsify with blood pudding and lady apples, and sweetbreads pan roasted with spring vegetables. Dessert highlights from a stellar array of options include blackberry cobbler with brioche and lime, and chocolate tart with hazelnut and caramel. A basics chapter showcases smaller touches with big impact, such as dressings, doughs, and pickles. A surprise cocktail recipe book by Leo Robitschek is concealed in a hidden back panel, and the libations are spectacular and diverse, including apéritifs, light and dark spirits, classics, and soft cocktails. Superb in both substance and scope, this collection offers a feast for the senses that will be savored at length.

October 15, 2015
When the Nomad Restaurant opened, few Manhattanites had much regard for a neighborhood that had sadly deteriorated from the splendor of its late nineteenth-century heyday. Taking over space in a chic renovated hotel, chef Humm and manager Guidara hoped to re-create bygone days when hotels held some of the city's finest restaurants. Bringing along some of the cachet from renowned Eleven Madison Park, Humm designed a menu around the finest and freshest ingredients. Measurements in these recipes appear metrically, and their precision reflects the chef's obsession for absolute and predictable perfection. A supplement ensconced in the back of the volume inventories cocktails created from all manner of liqueurs and special bitters by the house bartender, Leo Robitschek. This is the sort of elegantly conceived cookbook that culinary students will avidly dissect for inspiration, but that all but the most determined home cooks may find markedly daunting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)