Quintessential desserts from America's favorite food city. This gift cookbook is a collection of favorite delights from world-renowned New Orleans restaurants and chefs. The 45 recipes compiled include examples of signature New Orleans dishes invented or raised to their highest level in this city. Legends, lore, and musings accompany each recipe, topped off with delicious photographs. Selections include bread pudding from Bon Ton Café, bananas Foster from Brennan's, cherries jubilee from Broussard's, sweet potato pie from Dooky Chase, crème caramel from Galatoire's, pecan pie from Camelia Grill, crème brûlée from Arnaud's, turtle cookies from the once-ubiquitous McKenzie's bakeries, pralines from the Poor Clares, and banana cream pie from Emeril's. Pilgrims to the Big Easy return home with fond memories of sweet treats offered at the end of a long brunch or big dinner in one of the many great restaurants crowding New Orleans' byways. Wohl has brought together dessert recipes from the city's eateries and bakeries. Chef Robert Barker takes the flavors of a cup of spiced Cafe Brulot and exalts them into a pudding cake. Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse shows his penchant for pies with a caramel-topped banana cream pie and a dark chocolate pie. The indomitable Leah Chase's sweet potato pie shows off southern heritage. Bread pudding fans can choose among the classic version, a more sophisticated souffleed example, and one with white chocolate. Wohl's informative background notes offer intriguing morsels on each dessert's uniqueness. And the^B author's own vividly appetizing full-color photographs rendered in extreme close-up may seduce readers into virtually licking the book's pages. Mark Knoblauch Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Quintessential desserts from America's favorite food city. Kit Wohl is an author and artist with a passion for the culinary arts. Her first book, Arnaud's Restaurant Cookbook, received national acclaim. She has also written and photographed The P&J Oyster Cookbook and several titles in the Classic Recipes Series, including New Orleans Classic Seafood, New Orleans Classic Appetizers, New Orleans Classic Gumbos and Soups, and New Orleans Classic Brunches, all published by Pelican. Wohl and Billy, her husband, live in New Orleans with a trio of Abyssinian cats. “Any time you need reassurance about the state of New Orleans, you can renew your faith at the city’s world-famous restaurants with Emeril’s Banana Cream Pie, Broussard’s Cherries Jubilee, or Galatoire’s Crème Caramel; or, equally as reviving, simply look through and cook from Kit Wohl's mouth-watering book, which is a treasure trove of her city’s sweet legacy.“ —Lily Binns, Saveur magazine “Wohl’s informative background notes offer intriguing morsels on each dessert’s uniqueness…The author’s own vividly appetizing full-color photographs rendered in extreme close-up may seduce readers into virtually licking the book’s pages." — Booklist “Odd, really, why there hasn’t been a book devoted to the wide range of New Orleans desserts. Now there is, and it’s as fine a book as one could ask for, beautiful in its illustrations, sound in its judgments, and tantalizing in its recipes.” —John Mariani, author and columnist “The book reads like a series of short stories, the photographs are so wonderful you want to lick them, and the desserts themselves will bring you to your knees in joy. It just doesn’t get any better than this!” —Linda Ellerbee, author “Savoring these treasured New Orleans recipes is almost as good as being there again. Close your eyes and experience the city. Heaven on your tongue.” —Sue Grafton Kit Wohl is a cookbook author, photographer, graphic designer, and artist. She has worked with chefs, restaurants, and hotels across the country as the CEO of Wohl & Company, and she drew from her passion for the culinary arts to produce Arnaud's Restaurant Cookbook.  After she completed that cookbook in 2005, Wohl produced New Orleans Classic Desserts for Pelican. The series has grown, and each of Wohl's volumes covers a different aspect of New Orleans's traditional cuisine. New Orleans Classic Gumbos and Soups was chosen by Gourmet Magazine as their February 2009 Cookbook Club selection.  For each of her cookbooks, Wohl chooses recipes from the repertoires of a wide range of restaurant kitchens and professional chefs. All recipes are tested and adapted to home-kitchen standards, and each is illustrated with one of her photographs.   Cooking is an art and a form of creative expression, she says. Food is distinctive in form, color, texture, and flavor. The selection, preparation, and presentation of a meal are as creative as any art project. Best of all, it nurtures both the body and the spirit.  Her energy and artistic talent have resulted in numerous awards for design and production in various fields, including a Clio Award, the advertising industry's equivalent of the Emmy. She was a longtime bo