Gaby Dalkin's cookbook offers simple, delicious recipes that complement the California lifestyle

She’s blogging, she’s Instagram-ing (57,000 followers), she’s chatting with readers online. Gaby Dalkin is as much a social media whiz as she is a chef.

In her latest cookbook, “What’s Gaby Cooking: Everyday California Food,” she gives it all she’s got, creating a world of delicious images that might make a reader want to jump in and live in its pages. It’s simultaneously breezy and smart, gently threatening to revolutionize the way the average cook thinks about eating and entertaining with style.

It brings to mind other game-changing recipe books: Ina Garten’s “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook” from the late ’90s, “The Silver Palate Cookbook” in the ’80s, even the “Moosewood Cookbook” in the late ’70s.

But Dalkin ups the ante, showing as much in photographs as she tells us in the text.

“We eat with our eyes,” she said in a recent telephone interview. “Everything is visual in our world. So in order to be memorable, you need to be stimulating visually; that’s the biggest part of it,” she says. “I have a photographer and food stylist and we’ve worked really hard to create the What’s Gaby Cooking vibe.”

Like many highly successful food personalities, such as Martha Stewart and Giada De Laurentiis, Dalkin has a keen sense of style. She knows her audience and gently draws them in with images that set a casual chic tone.

Ice cream melts off an industrial scoop placed next to a rustic plum tart. A magenta napkin tossed between two blood orange margaritas with salted rims sits across the page from a chapter heading that says it all, “It’s Six O’Clock + I’m STARVING.” In another spread, Dalkin sits in a group of girlfriends laughing and enjoying messy marshmallow-filled cookie sandwiches at an outdoor coffee table.

“No matter what I’m doing, it all has to play back to the Cali girl mentality,” says the Los Angeles resident. “Whether it’s Instagram, Snapchat or the book, it has to be cohesive. It needs to be colorful and easy and nothing is going to take you too long to make. You won’t be in the kitchen for seven hours.”

How can recipes this simple be good? Don’t be deceived. Each one bears the stamp of a professionally trained chef who has been streamlining her favorites for eight years. Mom’s Every Night Cucumber Salad combines Persian cucumbers, ripe avocado slices and, if you care to, optional additions of cherry tomatoes or arugula. It’s the garlic with balsamic vinegar and olive oil in the right proportions that makes it sing.

Her Caramelized Onion, Leek and Red Pepper Crustless Quiche brings brightly colored vegetables such as red bell peppers and green leeks together so that it will look pretty on the table. Her genius tip of scattering crunchy panko crumbs on the bottom of the quiche plate for a beguiling hint of carb, not only skips a time-consuming crust but has you craving it long after the last bite. It’s practically guaranteed to be a conversation starter after guests have taken the first bite.

With recipes bearing titles like Lazy Girl Enchiladas, it’s a cookbook for anyone who loves to eat but might be a bit intimidated in the kitchen.

“I’m a professionally trained chef and I don’t want to make complicated recipes: Who does? People are busy. They’re coming home from work and they have kids. Things have to be simple and accessible.”

Simplicity and clarity will likely be the key to this book’s shelf life. Those qualities shout California lifestyle, because we like to join the party when we entertain. Dalkin’s banking on the easier the recipe, the more often you’ll make it.

“It really speaks to who I am,” Dalkin says. “I get books every day from different publishers and authors and so often I make one recipe out of a cookbook and I never use it again. This book? I want them to use it, to stain it, and to cook from it time and time again.”

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