I downloaded another ebook from my library, from 2018, excellent:
Freds at Barneys New York by Mark Strausman.
When I have the right energy/mood I might attempt the 3-Day Estelle’s Chicken Soup recipe (but I wouldn’t use backs because of livers in there!).
There are many other recipes that are easier. He has access to everything, I don’t know where to find fresh chervil in SF, probably Berkeley has but I’m not driving all the way over there.
Salt and Straw… I have to share a story! While we were on vacation in Los Angeles this past summer, we passed a S&S shop on our way to lunch, so went back for dessert. I convinced my 13yo to taste their “potato salad” ice cream. Just as he put the tasting spoon in his mouth, the employee said, “so this is made with our mustard base…” and 13 almost spit it right back out. He survived, though. 
Where do you live in the Bay Area ? Sigona’s (RWC) has normally chervil
Sf, Sunset
In that case Andronico’s Community Market isn’t too far away - they tend to have it
Carmines Cookbook is on sale as an ebook today at amazon. @NJChicaa has recommended it and I have been hoping for a reasonable copy, so jumped at this. Something like 85% gave it 5 starts.
Two cooks whose books I have never looked at are Ina Garten and Ottolenghi. I read cookbooks more for relaxing bedtime reading and for ideas than for recipes I might follow. Does anyone have any thoughts in that regard on either of them? I specifically like ideas that are more simple than those I might find with Thomas Keller or Marco Pierre White, things I can make from readily available ingredients without a large time investment.
Then Ina Garten is going to be more your speed.
I bought Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem for the story and background (and photos) - not to cook from. I did enjoy the read - but for a tour de force history, textbook, and reference nothing beats Claudia Roden’s The Book of Jewish Food, especially for the Middle East. I’m sorry it’s never been published as an ebook.
Ina Garden tend to be more of the “mainstream” cooking - predictable, solid, not terrible creative, small variations of recipes you find similarly in many other cookbooks. Ottolenghi is much more about more unusual combination of flavors, much more creative
Got a favorite Ottolenghi?
I am an Ottolenghi fan girl. I’ve seen him speak a couple times. There’s even a photo of me next to Ottolenghi, published in a magazine, after he visited a Modern Israeli restaurant in Toronto a while back.
The recipes I follow or look to for inspiration the most often over the past 15 years have been Ottolenghi’s, David Lebovitz’s or Felicity Cloake’s recipes from her Perfect column in the Guardian.
While I own Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem, Plenty and Simple, the only one I’ve used many times is Jerusalem.
Most of the recipes I’ve used from Jerusalem can be found online, as recipe links on newspaper sites or food sites, or as adaptations by bloggers.
For comments from other poster’s about specific recipes, and links to Ottolenghi recipes published online https://www.hungryonion.org/search?context=topic&context_id=32846&q=Ottolenghi%20%23cooking&skip_context=true
It is really a good one for Italian-American recipes. The penne alla vodka and pasta pomodoro are in constant rotation here. The Carmine’s salad and Carmine’s lasagna are party favorites. There’s a lot of good stuff in there!
Got it as well. Remember some delicious meals there many, many years ago. Their Chicken Scarpariello and penne alla vodka used to be family favorites!
The chicken saltimbocca is another favorite of mine. Yum!
Really depends on what you like to cook. Ina Garten focuses on American and European recipes for the most part.
Ottolenghi became famous with middle-eastern / levantine recipes, and expanded to include broadly asian flavors and techniques without making “asian dishes” (and most recently Mexican because someone on his team has mexican heritage).
So it boils down to what kind of food you cook, or want to cook / eat.
(People get flustered by his ingredient lists, but if you cook any kind of asian or middle eastern food already, you probably have 75% of the ingredients, and are not thrown by a list of spices. Simple was his attempt to have no more than 10 ingredients in a recipe, but Jerusalem and both the Plenty books have better recipes.)
There are a few Ottolenghi threads you can browse, the Guardian has a pile of his book recipes, as does his website and if you google any recipe name (check EYB or the Amazon previews).
I cook a very wide variety. Ottolenghi sounds more interesting. My pantry is well stocked from cooking a lot of Asian and Asian subcontinent, Mexican and Central American, African, European, and middle eastern foods. BTW, I love going to Indian, Chinese, and Halal grocers for spices. In Texas there is a wide array of Mexican and Central American offerings in most grocery stores. I am not daunted by technique issues (former professional plus training in France). I just want something to spark new ideas for dinners I can do in about 15-30 minutes… I can save the very complex dishes for weekends or other more leisurely days.
The idea behind Ottolenghi’s Simple was what you’re talking about, although I find the recipes take me longer than 20-30 minutes prep time.
Simple it is!
