Gaby Dalkin seems magical.
She has products at Williams-Sonoma. She’s got a website, a blog and an Instagram show. She answers fan questions on her social media accounts herself, which is remarkable when you realize she’s got 576,000 Instagram followers. She also stars in video cooking sessions shot by her husband, Thomas Dawson, that feature fun repartee between the two, as well as interaction with viewers.
If you were wondering where she found the time to write her first two cookbooks, well, she’s already done it again. Her third volume released on April 28, just as we were all quarantined at home and cooking like mad.
It’s titled, “What’s Gaby Cooking: Eat What You Want: 125 Recipes for Real Life” and it’s all about taking the pressure off yourself in the kitchen.
“Everyone just needs to eat what they want and make themselves happy,” Dalkin said during a telephone interview from her home in Brentwood. “Anytime you really restrict yourself from eating something, but not for a health reason, it’s not great for you,” she said.
“You’re going to just want it even more and crave it even more. So I think if you’re allowing yourself to have cookies and to have a cocktail but also have salads and lots of fruits and vegetables, you’re going to be happier. And ultimately, especially in today’s world, that’s what we need.”
The book is loaded with eye-popping photos illustrating every recipe. That’s a signature of this professionally trained chef who hails from Chicago but who has adopted the California lifestyle. She’s intent on showing us how savvy, sophisticated dishes don’t have to rattle your nerves with a series of complicated steps or ingredients.
From pizzas and pastas to bowls, salads and smoothies, she’s got a contemporary touch that reflects her travels and her awareness of how Californians like to eat and entertain.
The book is organized into chapters with purpose. The “Soul Mate: Carbs” is filled with recipes like Goat Cheese Polenta with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil Vinaigrette, and Bacon, Cheddar & Tomato Grilled Cheese. “Throw an Outdoor Bash” has dishes for a backyard party like batched cocktails and tips like how to set up a Smashed Burger Bar. “If At First You Don’t Succeed, Have Dessert,” is stuffed with sweets like comforting Kitchen Sink Cookies studded with M&Ms and showstopping Raspberry Frangipane Galette with a sparkling, sugar-dusted pastry.
We asked Dalkin to clue us in on how to get through these challenging times.
Q. For a Chicago native, you sure get the California lifestyle. You guys were super tanned in the photos and the book feels very summery. Was that intentional?
A. I wanted you to feel that from the pages of my cookbook: No matter where you are, even if it’s raining and you’re living in Oklahoma, you could still get excited that summer’s coming – and there’s sunshine and a pool. And here’s what I could make to make it feel like summer right now. So yeah, so it’s definitely intentional.
Q. You create recipes every day. How do you pick the ones that will star in the cookbook?
A. I make a whole list with all the overarching themes I want to have. So besides the dinner parties and stuff, I know I want to have a certain amount of chicken recipes or beef recipes. I don’t want to have 900 pasta recipes. So then I start slotting things in here and there. And as I test things, I’m like, “Oh no, this is not cookbook worthy,” and I toss it and then I swap something else in. So it’s really just like a huge puzzle that gets adjusted all the time.
Q. The cocktails in batches, that’s a new thing, right?
A. I did not have cocktails in the last book and I got yelled at multiple times on the book tour. People were like, “Gaby, where are the drinks?”
Q. These are easy to make but they taste fancy. And they’re not too sweet or too boozy.
A. I personally gravitate towards lighter cocktails that you could kind of just drink socially and enjoy. I never want to wake up with a hangover.
Q. A lot of people who don’t typically set foot in the kitchen are cooking right now. Can they use this book?
A. None of my recipes on my website or in the book are ever gonna require so many ingredients or so much time. And so really they’re meant to be accessible for everyone no matter what your cooking level is.
Q. I love the “So Easy Even Thomas Can Make It” chapter. It’s like you’re immortalizing him and throwing him under the bus at the same time.
A. Yeah, pretty much. [Laughs].
Q. Yum. That’s the chapter with the Greek Chicken Trough recipe. I think it’s really sweet that you get inspired by the way your friends and family cook. Tell me a little bit about your dad’s recipes.
A. My dad is a doctor; he operates two times a week. So he’s busy, but he’s developed an obsession for baking bread and he’s also like a master cookie maker. So there’s a bread recipe and a cookie in this book dedicated to him. And I think it’s because he is such a scientist at heart that the bread, it’s so gratifying to him. I was up in Seattle for a week and we were testing together and I was like, OK, we have this basic bread recipe that you do, but I want to add all these things to it. I want to add sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic and thyme and Parmesan.
Q. Was he game?
A. He was like, “No, no Gaby. That’s sacrilegious.” And I was like, No, Dad, it’s going to be so good. And we went through dozens of bowls of garlic and all the sundried tomatoes and at the end of it, we were both so happy with how it came out. But it was funny making him come around to adding different things to his traditional recipe that he perfected.
Q. And his cookie recipe is killer. Did he make those for you when you were a kid?
A. We’ve been making Kitchen Sink cookies since before I can remember. All of my friends, whenever they would come over, we’d get so excited if there were cookies in the freezer …you would nuke them in the microwave for 10 seconds to warm them up a bit. And even to this day, like whenever my friends are passing through Seattle, they’ll call him and be like, “Hey, we’re going to swing by!” and everyone expects cookies.
Q. I saw that you were doing appearances at Williams-Sonoma but they got postponed. When will they happen?
A. Hopefully, we will be able to reschedule that for later this summer or early this fall. In the meantime, we’re going to do all sorts of cool virtual book stuff. As soon as the book launches, we’ll do some big giveaways. I’m actually gonna have a huge giveaway to win a dinner party.
Q. Say I win, is it at my place or your house in Brentwood?
A. You can have it at your house, a friend’s house, your parents’ house, wherever you want. And you get to invite nine of your friends. You can do all girls and it’ll just be me, or you can do couples and I’ll bring my husband. We’re going to make it into something really fun and exciting because I feel like when we all get out of quarantine, everyone’s going to be so pumped!
Q. In the meantime we’ll just have to keep cooking like crazy.
A. Yeah. People are going to come out of this knowing how to make sourdough bread.
What’s Gaby Cooking: Eat What You Want: 125 Recipes for Real Life
Author: Gaby Dalkin
Publisher: Abrams
When: Released April 28
Price: $29.99