Il Buco Stories and Recipes Review

Il Buco: Stories and Recipes

Following the trend of the last weeks, we are back with another Restaurant Cookbook review. This time we decided to bring you one of the newest books from HarperCollins Publishers, Il Buco: Stories and Recipes.

In honor of its twenty-fifth anniversary comes this full-color culinary celebration of il Buco, one of New York City’s most beloved restaurants, featuring more than 80 mouthwatering recipes and detailing the romantic origins of the restaurant’s philosophy of sourcing the best prime materials, including olive oil, salt, vinegar and all that make the Mediterranean way of life so alluring.

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A Restaurant with History

In New York City, restaurants, even very good ones, come and go. But there are a very small number of establishments that take root and continue to flourish, where food, wine, atmosphere, history, and all the makers behind the scenes come together in a unique alchemy to create an experience. Il Buco is such a place. For over 25 years, Donna Lennard has presided over an international—and ever-growing—family of artisans, farmers, winemakers, chefs, and regulars from her outpost on Bond Street in the heart of New York City.  Since 1994, il Buco has withstood the test of time.

In il Buco, written with Joshua David Stein, Donna shares her incredible journey from antique shop owner to award-winning restaurateur and taste-maker. She reflects on the iconic ingredient-driven, farm-to-table Italian cooking that seduced palates and earned the loyalty of notoriously discriminating New York diners. Donna also expounds upon the essential elements of good eating and good living she learned over the restaurant’s nearly three-decade history.

Both a cookbook and a deeply personal journey through the places and with the people who have influenced the restaurant’s ethos the most, il Buco includes the beloved best-of dishes from the kitchen’s roster of now-famous chefs: Ignacio Mattos’s Black Kale Salad, Justin Smillie’s Bucatini Cacio e Pepe, and Sara Jenkins’s Porchetta alla Romana, to name a few.  It also includes profiles of the artisans whose craftsmanship evokes the warm Mediterranean patinas that have enhanced the restaurants’ atmosphere over the years.

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A Life's Work

Donna has dedicated her life to identifying, cultivating, and celebrating the essential ingredients of a beautiful life well-lived. Il Buco isn’t just a place, it’s a feeling—of warmth, of home, of ease, of love—and l Buco allows any home cook to experience some of the restaurant’s beautiful and inviting magic, creating sumptuous easy meals to enjoy at his or her own table.

Il Buco: Stories and Recipes is designed to introduce those of you who don't know il Buco to the stories and recipes that have made this restaurant famous. Accompanying the mouthwatering recipes and gorgeous photography are Donna’s insights on what it truly means to live well and to eat well and tributes to food producers in Spain, Italy, France, and other parts of the world.

To give you a sense of the world behind the scenes at the restaurant, the recipes of this book are interspersed with narrative chapters, including some of donna's favorite stories. You'll hear the voices of some dearest customers, and you'll travel across the Atlantic to meet the olive oil, salt, and vinegar producers.

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Final Thoughts

Il Buco: Stories and Recipes is without any doubt one of the biggest surprises that we had this year. Contrary to most of the Restaurant Cookbooks we reviewed, this one is actually made to be used in everyone's kitchens. But incredibly, this was not what surprised us most. What really has blown our minds was the inviting and warm filling of this book. Il feels like every little detail has been meticulously thought out. From the paper used to make this book, to the selection of photographs and stories, and of course the recipes, everything is in perfect balance, producing one of the best restaurant cookbooks we have ever seen.