This is a preliminary review as I have only recently gotten this cookbook and have not yet had a chance to cook from it. But -- unlike many chef cookbooks (Tanis is currently head chef at Chez Panisse) -- this cookbook is full of dishes that seem eminently doable for the home cook who has access to excellent ingredients. This will be the first book I cook from in 2010.
It is a very personal cookbook and the experiences and idiosyncrasies of this very talented chef are right there on the page. I admire the design of the book (including the print font -- although I wouldn't have minded if they had increased the font size a bit). The photos are beautiful and help to convey Tanis's unfussy approach to the creation of great dishes -- you can almost smell and taste the dishes as you read the recipes and look at the accompanying photos.