Ammazza! Culinary Adventures from New York to Italy and Back Again

For a limited time we have copies signed by Chef Hillary Sterling.

Hillary Sterling is one of New York's most celebrated chefs, a four-time James Beard nominee who is now the executive chef at Ci Siamo, Danny Meyer's live-fire Italian restaurant in Hudson Yards. The exuberant title of her first cookbook signals that Italian connection clearly enough. What it doesn't signal is how much else is here.

Sterling grew up Jewish in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, cooked at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, and then built a celebrated career in Italian food. All of those themes are present in Ammazza! Maccheroni alla chitarra gets garlic and sungold tomatoes; romano beans come in an oregano vinaigrette; a turnip dish reworks the logic of cacio e pepe. Her Passover table includes ramp-horseradish butter, kumquat mostarda, and turkey Milanese alongside homemade matzoh. Salt-roasted sweet potatoes arrive with a cascabel chile vinaigrette. None of this feels like a departure from anything, because for Sterling none of it is.

A chef who has cooked seriously in New York long enough accumulates a wide frame of reference, and Sterling has been paying attention throughout. This book shows what that looks like when it all comes together. Highly recommended.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.