Il Buco

“Delicious recipes from . . . extraordinary chefs” from the “rare restaurant” that focuses on “the aliveness and the beauty of its ingredients” (from the foreword by Alice Waters, James Beard award- winning chef, Chef Panisse).

For over twenty-five years, Donna Lennard has presided over an international family of artisans, farmers, winemakers, chefs and regulars from her outpost on Bond Street in 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. She reflects on the ingredient-driven, farm-to-table Italian cooking that 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.

Il Buco allows cooks of all levels to create sumptuous easy meals to enjoy at home. Accompanying the mouthwatering recipes and gorgeous photography are dedicated chapters on the building blocks to a perfect meal: salt, olive oil, wine, and salumi, among others.

A personal exploration of what makes the heart of a restaurant, Il Buco is a celebration of a true New York success story

“Through these pages, we travel around the Mediterranean, visiting the farmers, artisans, and winemakers . . . And then we return to Bond Street, stories and recipes in hand.” —Francis Mallmann