One of New Orleanss brightest culinary stars, Susan Spicer has been indulging Crescent City diners at her highly acclaimed restaurants, Bayona and Herbsaint, for years. Now, in her long-awaited cookbook, Spiceran expert at knocking cuisine off its pedestal with a healthy dash of hot sauce, and at elevating comfort food to the level of the sublimebrings her signature dishes to the home cooks table.Crescent City Cooking includes all the recipes that have made Susan Spicer, and her restaurants, famous. Spicer marries traditional Southern cooking with culinary influences from around the world, and the result is New Orleans cooking with gusto and flair. Each of her familiar yet unique recipes is easy to make and wonderfully memorable. Inside youll find : More than 170 recipes, ranging from traditional New Orleans dishes (Cornmeal-Crusted Crayfish Pies and Cajun-Spiced Pecans) to Susans very own twists on down-home cuisine (Smoked Duck Hash in Puff Pastry with Apple Cider Sauce; Grilled Shrimp with Black Bean Cakes and Coriander Sauce) and, of course, a recipe for the best gumbo youve ever tasted Over 90 photographs by Times-Picayune photographer Chris Granger, which display the vibrant city of New Orleans as much as Spicers wonderfully offbeat yet classy way of presenting her dishes Instructions that make Spicers down-to-earth but extraordinarily creative recipes easy to prepare. Spicer, who cooks for two picky preteens and packs lunch every day for her husband, knows how precious time can be and understands just how much is enough There is something else of New Orleansits spiritthat imbues this books every useful tip and anecdote. The strong culinary traditions of New Orleans are revived in Crescent City Cooking, with recipes that are guaranteed to comfort and surprise. This is some of the best food youll ever taste, in what is certain to become the essential New Orleans cookbook.From the Hardcover edition.