Book excerpt: With an unquenchable ardor for local, luscious, sustainably produced food and drink, Vitaly and Kimberly Paley bring their elegant, soulful fare home in The Paley's Place Cookbook. Nestled in a converted Victorian in Portland's trendy Northwest District, Paley's Place Bistro and Bar has been serving Vitaly Paley's creative, beautifully executed cooking for over a decade. Co-owner Kimberly Paley's joyous hospitality has helped make their restaurant into a West Coast destination. Now, The Paley's Place Cookbook teaches you to create blissfully perfect dishes from the ground up, whether simple (Grilled Figs Wrapped in Prosciutto; Tomato-Bread Soup) or showy (Duck Wellington with Mole Sauce; Vegetable-Stuffed Morels with Green Garlic Confit and Parmesan Cream), the authors emphasize the building blocks of wonderful food: great ingredients and great technique. Chapters on appetizers; soups, salads, and sandwiches; pastas and grains; fish and shellfish; meat, game, and fowl; vegetable side dishes; and desserts are complemented by extras, including a primer on putting together a knockout Oregon cheese course and a bevy of recipes for hand-crafted and seasonal cocktails. Wine pairings point the reader to well-matched styles and makers from the Pacific Northwest and France. Throughout the book, the Paleys introduce us to some of the many skilled food producers who make the Pacific Northwest a culinary treasure trove, and also take us inside the chef's thought process as he creates and refines his recipes. Evocative photographs—of finished dishes, gorgeous local foodstuffs, and the people who produce the food that gives so much pleasure—round out this personal, passionate, enlightening, and utterly delicious cookbook.