Everyone wants to eat at Ignacio Mattos's Estela, from the world's top chefs to ordinary food lovers. (Michelle and Barack Obama chose Estela as the one restaurant they wanted to eat at during a visit to New York.) It's because each Ignacio Mattos dish is the quintessence of right. He just nails it--his inventive and playful layering of flavors and textures, combined with precision in execution, makes each forkful positively electric.

His food is influenced by Spanish and Italian cooking--the birthright of all who grow up in Uruguay--but he is equally in love with American food, both high and low. You will find dishes like a Waldorf salad or a sauce inspired by his infatuation with a cheesy topping encountered at a 7-Eleven; yet each is unlike anything you have ever tried. Familiar, yes, but astonishingly better. He offers seasoning and flavoring tricks--the use of different salts and vinegars in a given dish (not one type but two or more), the use of juiced greens in place of sauces that make everything bright and light, the way he dresses salads (he doesn't)--that will elevate your everyday cooking.

The book opens with a chapter on kitchen snacks (staff favorites) and is followed by nine chapters, including one on Estela Classics--dishes which can never leave the menu due to popular demand (e.g., Mussels Escabeche on Toast and Beef Tartare with Sunchoke Chips). The chapter on beloved salads includes Endive with Walnuts and Ubriaco Rosso; Celery Salad with Mint and Formaggio di Fossa; and Apricots with Thai Basil and Fresh Chile. There are recipes for brunch, mains featuring fish and meat, and of course, desserts.

"Estela is one of those restaurants that inspire the shit out of me," says chef Sean Brock. Home cooks will love the immediacy and brilliance of Mattos's food and will be intrigued and enlightened by the ways he brings forth deep flavor.